Ex-Laker McGee Helps Atlanta End L.A.’s Win Streak at Nine, 113-107

It may have been a coming-of-age win for the Atlanta Hawks, who snapped the Lakers’ nine-game winning streak with a 113-107 win before a sellout crowd of 17,505 at the Forum Tuesday night.

For ex-Laker Mike McGee, it was something more.

A case of one-upmanship, perhaps.

“When I missed those couple of free throws, I looked over and saw Riles (Laker Coach Pat Riley) grinning,” said McGee, who misfired twice with the Hawks clinging to a 105-101 lead with 2:59 to play.

“Then I got that jumper and put it right back in his face.”

That jumper came after a Laker turnover, when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar dribbled the ball off his foot, McGee making the recovery.

The former Laker guard wound up with the ball on the right baseline and sank a 17-footer that climaxed a 12-2 run and gave Atlanta a 111-101 lead with 1:07 left.

“Hey, I’ve been shooting 80% from the line,” said McGee, a career 59.3% free-throw shooter as a Laker before going to Atlanta in a draft-day trade for rookie Billy Thompson.

“But he (Riley) laughed, and it came right back at him.”

The Hawks, winners of consecutive games against the Celtics and the Lakers, came at L.A. in waves in the first half, when they took a shocking, 60-43 lead.

While the Lakers were making only 16 of 44 shots (36.4%), with Abdul-Jabbar missing his only two attempts, the Hawks were battering the Lakers on the boards, with a 31-16 advantage.

“That was the worst half we’ve played since I’ve been here,” Riley said. “That’s two nights in a row that we didn’t show ready to play.

“The first four minutes of the game, we were getting beat, 11-2, on the boards, and in our transition game, we weren’t getting back on defense.

“And give Atlanta credit for their attack, which was nothing but taking the ball right at us.”

Atlanta Coach Mike Fratello, whose team is the only one in the NBA holding opponents to an average of under 100 points a game, refused to take credit for the defensive scheme the Hawks employed against Abdul-Jabbar, who finished with 16 points, six in the last minute.

“I wish I could tell you it was a special defense,” Fratello said. “But we just prayed a lot and scrambled a lot.”

The Lakers, who were playing without their leading rebounder, Kurt Rambis, who has a dislocated finger, did some impressive scrambling of their own in the third quarter, when they outscored Atlanta, 16-2, at the outset.

They finally caught the Hawks, 77-77, when A.C. Green dunked a feed from Abdul-Jabbar with 2:02 left in the quarter.

With Atlanta double- and triple-teaming Abdul-Jabbar, the Laker center turned passer, collecting six assists in the quarter.

“It was like a joke, the way Kareem was finding people open under the basket,” Fratello said.

Byron Scott’s buzzer-beating slam off one of the Lakers’ few fast breaks tied the score, 85-85, entering the fourth quarter.

In the past, the Hawks--who had lost to the Lakers 10 straight times at the Forum--might have called it a night right there. No more.

“We might not have had it last year,” said Hawk forward Dominique Wilkins, the league’s leading scorer last season. “But we’re at a different maturity level this season, which says a lot for our team.

“Now, people can say the Hawks can play with anybody in the league.”

As long as they have Wilkins operating the way he did down the stretch, the Hawks can.

By human highlight film standards, it wasn’t spectacular, no more than a 7 on the Franklin scale.

But Wilkins, who had a game-high 26 points, made 6 free throws plus a back-door pass to McGee in the last six minutes, helping the Hawks expand their 95-94 lead to 111-101.

“We tried to drive him into traps and I think we did a good job of containment,” said Laker Michael Cooper. “But Dominique is great at hitting the open man and he did that tonight.”

The Lakers, meanwhile, reverted to a familiar pattern--dumping the ball into Abdul-Jabbar.

“We reverted to it and it didn’t work,” Riley said. “Guys weren’t cutting enough. I don’t want to go back to a one-man offense.”

Glenn Rivers and Cliff Levingston had 19 points apiece for the Hawks. Levingston also had a game-high 15 rebounds, as the Hawks finished with a 52-35 rebounding advantage.

Magic Johnson scored 22 points and Scott 20 for the Lakers, who play the Clippers tonight at the Sports Arena.

The Hawks (10-2) have the league’s best record, a half-game better than the Lakers.

“They’ve really come around,” the Lakers’ James Worthy said. “They’ve improved a lot in the last three years. Their biggest asset is their confidence. They really believe in themselves right now.”

Laker Notes

A.C. Green, starting in place of the injured Kurt Rambis, scored 19 points and had 7 rebounds in 29 minutes. . . . Coach Pat Riley said that Rambis, who dislocated his right index finger in practice, may be out as long as two weeks. . . . The Lakers, who outscored Atlanta, 40-23, in the third quarter, did not commit a turnover in the period. . . . Atlanta guard Spud Webb, playing with his bruised right thigh heavily taped, had an off-shooting night, making just of 4 of 14 shots. . . . The Laker guards coming off the bench, Michael Cooper and Wes Matthews, were equally off-target, shooting a combined 3 for 18. The Lakers, who came into the game having made 25 of 47 three-point attempts.