Green, Scott Power Lakers Past Portland : A.C. Scores 26 on Best Night, Byron Adds 27 in 131-115 Win

One of these nights, A.C. Green will have the use of both hands.

Once in practice, the Laker forward tried playing without any protection on his injured left thumb, and still winces in the telling.

“I got hit in that practice, and the pain made my eyebrows raise,” Green said.

But Thursday night, playing with a smaller cast than he’d worn so far, Green raised some other eyebrows with 26 points, his biggest night as a Laker, in Los Angeles’ 131-115 romp over Portland before a crowd of 15,007 at the Forum.

“I’ve always been a big A.C. Green fan,” said Portland’s new coach, Mike Schuler, who replaced the long-entrenched Jack Ramsay, now in Indiana.

“When I was in Milwaukee, we really thought about drafting him. He’s improved a great deal. . . . He adds another dimension to the Lakers.

“He battles the boards well, runs the court. Every team could use an A.C. Green.”

The Lakers, who have beaten Portland in 16 straight games at the Forum, including the playoffs, also got a season-high 27 points from Byron Scott, who had been in a shooting slump.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 18 points and 14 rebounds, his most in a regular-season game in two seasons, while Magic Johnson had 17 points and 18 assists, the latter total matching his season high.

Steve Johnson scored 24 points for Portland, which trailed by only three, 57-54, at halftime but fell to a 24-6 Laker rush in the third quarter.

With Atlanta losing to Milwaukee Thursday night, the Lakers’ 18-5 record is the best in the NBA.

“I’ll tell you what the key to this team is,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “Byron Scott, Michael Cooper, A.C. Green and Kurt Rambis, what they bring to the game.”

Uh, what about guys named Abdul-Jabbar, Johnson and James Worthy, who had combined to score 228 points in the previous three games, almost 65% of the Laker offense?

“They’re going to score every night,” Riley said, “but the other four guys can’t expect those three to stimulate everything.

“The other guys have to bring an aggressive posture every night, because if they do, they’ll stimulate the three great ones.”

To that end, Riley had a little chat Thursday morning with Scott, who on the last trip had shot just 37.7% and averaged just 9.8 points. He made just 2 of 10 shots against the New York Knicks and 7 of 21 against the Detroit Pistons.

“I always give my starters the benefit of the doubt,” Riley said. “I’m not going to play with their minds. They’re going to get their minutes.

“But when he has an extended five-game slump, a front-line player should never take that for granted and think he can ride on the other guys’ coattails while he’s going bad.

“That doesn’t go only for Byron, but the other guys as well. I just wanted to see him shake himself out of it, and he did tonight.”

Scott hit the Lakers’ first shot, a three-pointer from the corner, en route to 13 points in the first half. He added another dozen in the third quarter, sinking five jumpers from 15 feet and beyond, as the Lakers opened their biggest lead of the night, 87-71, with 4:58 left in the period.

“We wanted to make it easy on our big men by doubling down on Kareem and Worthy,” Portland guard Jim Paxson said, “but Byron was hitting everything he put up.”

So was Green, though his range, of course, is more circumscribed than Scott’s, especially with the cast. Green made a couple of outside jumpers, but a typical basket was the lay-in he scored on Magic’s most extraordinary pass of the night, an over-the-head, no-look, no-hesitation pass off an offensive rebound.

The pass didn’t surprise him, Green said.

“That takes time, playing with Earvin, but I knew he’d do it,” Green said. “I knew he knew where I was, because we’d both been under the basket, so I stood there with my hands up. A great play.”

Green, who had scored 19 points in each of his first two games as a starter after Kurt Rambis dislocated his right index finger, had scored in single digits in the first four games of the trip before getting 10 points against Cleveland Tuesday night.

“When he’s trying to get things done, people have to pay attention to him,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “That gives the rest of us a little more room. They can’t play zone against the rest of us.”

But no one plays zone in the NBA, Kareem.

Who doesn’t? he asked.

Laker Notes

The Trail Blazers, who already have taken heat for drafting the oft-injured Sam Bowie ahead of Michael Jordan, undoubtedly will be grilled again after trading their No. 1 draft choice this season, Walter Berry, to San Antonio for Kevin Duckworth, who was the Spurs’ second-round draft choice. Berry, who had some back problems, played only 19 minutes for the Trail Blazers, but reportedly, neither his teammates nor management liked his attitude. “Walter came into a tough situation,” said Portalnd center Steve Johnson of the former St. John’s forward, who won the John Wooden Award as NCAA player of the year last season. “He signed late, never got in good shape, had some injuries, so it was hard for him to get playing time.” And when Bowie went down with a broken tibia in his right leg, Portland needed another big man, which they’ll get in the 7-foot, 280-pound Duckworth. Johnson said the trade wasn’t a shock, but some surprise was expressed in the Laker dressing room. “I don’t know what happened to Walter,” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said. “I don’t know Walter that well, and I haven’t seen him play at all this season, but now he’s gone.” And after just 19 minutes, too. “That’s odd,” Abdul-Jabbar said. . . . Billy Thompson, the Lakers’ top draft choice, played against Berry when he was at Louisville. “I hope he gets it together and makes the transition to the pro game,” Thompson said. “He’s a great player.”