Rockets Are Hoping Reid Can Make the Point : Houston Is Down to Its No. 3 Playmaker, but Many Have to Look Up to Him

Now that every body has a 6-8 point guard, we come to the inevitable clash, the Lakers and Houston Rockets presenting the first giant point-off, Magic Johnson vs. Robert Reid.

Let’s check the reviews so far.

In Saturday’s opener, Johnson scored 26 points with 18 assists and 3 steals. Boffo, baby. Socko. To die from.

Reid’s numbers were 8-8-1. He shot 4 for 12. Laid an egg the size of a bowling ball.

Or as a peer, Michael Cooper of the Lakers, noted charitably: “Robert’s done a great job for them but they don’t have a real point guard. I think it’ll work to our advantage.”

“I don’t read the papers but you hear about those things,” said Robert Reid, the ersatz Rocket point guard Sunday, the day the Rockets practiced and the Lakers went to the beach.

“Fine, that’s what Cooper said. What happened when they came down to Houston and we beat them? I played the point. I shot the ball well. We moved the ball.

“What it’s going to come down to is you have to take each game one at a time. Saturday I shot 4 for 12. That’s pitiful. A point guard is supposed to hit those shots. If Ralph (Sampson) and Akeem (Olajuwon) sacrifice and go inside and throw the ball out, they’re saying, we’ve got confidence you can hit those shots. You’ve got to hit those shots.”

Of course, it did take an improbable succession of events--and a coaching decision that surprised RR, himself--to convert Reid, a 6-8, 215-pound forward for his eight-year pro career, to the point.

However . . . Reid did play guard (and forward, and center) at St. Mary’s, his little Texas college, and he can handle the ball. He even put in 30 games at the point in his second pro season for Tom Nissalke’s unit of Rick Barry, Rudy Tomjanovich, Calvin Murphy and Moses Malone. Or, three shooters, a rebounder and an overmatched young point guard.

But versatility is its own reward. A couple of months before this season ended, the first stringer, John Lucas, fell off the wagon and was waived.

The second stringer, Allen Leavell, moved up but injured a hand.

Next?

“The next game was at Phoenix,” Reid says. “Coach (Bill Fitch) came up to me. I’m thinking he’ll put Mitchell Wiggins in, or bring in Steve Harris and let Rodney (McCray) play the point forward.

“What he told me was, ‘Robert, you’ve got the point tonight. Be ready.’

“The first thing I did, I went to my room and started to think about what I had to do. A point guard has to control the game. If things start to get helter-skelter, people say, ‘Wait, they don’t have a point guard.’ ”

Give that man a cigar. That’s exactly what people said: The Rockets are dumb, the Rockets have no backcourt, the Rockets can’t shoot from outside well enough to beat the Lakers. The other guard, Lewis Lloyd, is another converted forward.

And surely, all you have to do is press Reid?

“All of them said that,” Reid says. “Sacramento (three games and out in the first round) tried it with Reggie (Theus), Mike Woodson and Larry Drew. Denver came up with it.

“The most trouble I had? The last game with Denver. Fat Lever. The first five games, I could set him up with a crossover dribble and go on down the floor. But the sixth game, I couldn’t cross over. He was laying for it. Now I had to stay strictly right-handed.

“But when you look at the stats, I think I’m averaging two turnovers a game. I pat myself on the back for that. Two turnovers when you’re handling the ball 85% of the time?

“And if anyone says I’m being over-cautious, fine. I’ll be over-cautious. This is the playoffs and each possession, the ball is so valuable.

“Byron Scott came up and jumped on me real quick Saturday. But as the game went on, I got more comfortable with it. We’ve got to push the ball up. Otherwise, it’s five seconds off the clock.”

And Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s assertion the Rockets are and should be a walk-up team?

“When we become a walk-up team it’s my fault,” Reid said. “I’m the one not pushing it.

“Our fast break isn’t like the Lakers, where Magic Johnson will dribble through four guys. When I get it, I’ll take two, three quick bounces and look. Where’s Lew? Where’s Rodney? Then I’ll make the pass and we’ll cut and weave off it.

“I’m going to stay within my realm. When all is said and done, I want the sportswriters and the people to say, ‘Robert Reid played his game.’ Not that I tried to make Magic’s moves. Magic has a totally different style that’s made him world reknown. I’m not going to get caught up in copying his style.

“It takes a lot of mental strength to play the point. You have to take the same type of grief the coach takes. If it comes to the point when things are going wrong, Coach Fitch will jump on my butt. If we go up and down the floor five times without scoring, he’ll go, ‘Dammit Bobby, what are you doing?’ ”

Bobby is hanging in, that’s what he’s doing. This isn’t Broadway, no one’s show closes opening night.