Instead of Blowout, It’s an Eke-Out for Lakers : Dallas Puts Up a Battle Before Bowing, 117-113

There must be something about losing a close game that gives a team confidence. As Dallas Mavericks owner Donald Carter walked out of the locker room, he stopped to mention something to an attendant.

“See you next week,” Carter said.

What is the reason for such optimism?

Maybe it was because the Lakers suddenly needed to reorganize their thoughts about playoff time, when the winning had been easy. The easiness ended Wednesday night in the Forum, where Los Angeles struggled for an uphill, 117-113 victory over the Mavericks.

Although the Lakers have a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven NBA Western Conference semifinal series, it’s easy to see why the Mavericks feel so good about their situation.

Or is it? All they have to do now is win four of the next five games and the Lakers are history.

“If I was them, I would be saying to myself, ‘We can definitely beat the Lakers,’ ” Laker Kurt Rambis said.

They couldn’t do it this time, even though the Lakers came out flat and stayed that way until the possibility of losing looked very real At that point, $3 million worth of Laker talent named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson took over.

From midway through the fourth quarter until James Worthy made a Laker free throw with nine seconds to go, Abdul-Jabbar and Johnson scored 22 of the 26 Laker points.

Abdul-Jabbar, who scored 12 points in the fourth quarter and finished with 26, dropped in a hook with 1:03 left to give the Lakers what seemed to be a safe 116-111 lead. However, appearances were deceiving.

If it weren’t for a couple of mistakes, the Mavericks might well have flown back to Dallas for Game 3 with a split at the Forum. Instead, the Lakers proved they can win the close ones as well as the not-so-close.

Rolando Blackman’s jumper cut the Laker lead to 116-113 with 49 seconds left, then Abdul-Jabbar missed a sky hook. That was a signal for the mistakes to begin. The difference was that the Lakers survived theirs.

Derek Harper, who had been terrific for the Mavericks all night, picked a bad time to goof up for the first time. He drove the lane, found Abdul-Jabbar in his path and was called for traveling with 16 seconds left.

Then it was Johnson’s turn. An 87% free-throw shooter during the regular season, Johnson missed two free throws with 12 seconds remaining to give the Mavericks a reprieve.

Johnson put both hands on his hips and looked into the stands, perhaps searching for an explanation. He came up with one later.

“It just happens,” Johnson said. “I’m thinking about it now, I’ll think about it tonight, I’ll forget about it in the morning.”

Dallas called timeout to set up a three-point shot. But Jay Vincent’s inbounds pass sailed past Harper, who dived for the ball as it bounced out of bounds.

“It was a tough pass to catch,” Vincent said. “I guess you have to blame me because it’s always the passer’s fault.”

Three seconds later, Worthy was fouled, but he missed the first free throw. Not until he made the second did the Lakers breathe easier with a four-point lead.

By rights, the Lakers should have been breathing a lot easier a little earlier. That would have been when Mark Aguirre fouled out and took his 28 points to the bench.

The Mavericks were ahead, 94-90, when Aguirre left with 8:45 to play, but Dallas surprisingly held tough and stayed close enough to make the Lakers appreciate their rare narrow victory.

“You can’t expect anything in the playoffs,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “I’m glad it was a close game, because that’s going to be the nature of things the rest of the way. You learn things from winning a close game.”

But can’t you also learn things from playing a close game and losing?

“Yeah,” he said. “But you don’t like to learn those kinds of lessons. “You don’t want to learn the ultimate lesson.”

One of the lessons the Lakers learned is that they cannot do without Johnson, who played only 11 minutes in the first half because of foul trouble. The Mavericks took a 63-57 lead into the third quarter and still held an 87-84 advantage entering the final quarter.

The Lakers didn’t get their first lead of the second half until Johnson ripped an 18-footer with 2:40 left in the game to make the score 110-108. Johnson finished with 21 points and 9 assists in 32 minutes.

Perhaps the biggest play of the game occurred moments earlier, with the Mavericks leading, 100-98. Abdul-Jabbar rejected a shot by Harper, one of eight blocks by the Lakers, and Johnson picked up the loose ball as it bounced near the baseline.

“That kind of took the wind out of their sails,” said Abdul-Jabbar, who was unable to get the ball himself because he was standing out of bounds. “They were coming back and scoring every time.”

And now, unless the Mavericks win at least one of the two games to be played in Dallas, Friday night and Sunday afternoon, neither Carter nor the Mavericks will be coming back to play at the Forum this season.

Laker Notes Laker James Worthy played 45 minutes, the most of any player on either team, and had 23 points and 9 rebounds. . . . Laker Maurice Lucas put in 22 minutes and had 11 rebounds, but Maverick Mark Aguirre finished with a game-high 12. . . . Dallas outshot the Lakers (52.2% to 51.8%), but lost, an unusual statistic for the Mavericks; in the last two seasons, Dallas has gone 64-5 when outshooting its opponent. . . . In his playoff career, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has outscored the entire Dallas roster, 4,655 to 2,011. . . . Derek Harper finished with seven steals, a Dallas playoff record.