With Kareem Out, Lakers Lose, 130-119

The Lakers suspected it was not going to be an ordinary Saturday when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar walked into their morning practice wearing an eye patch. “That was a real weird sight,” Magic Johnson said.

You bet it was. A real eye opener.

The team with the best record in the best basketball league in the world wound up taking the floor Saturday night with Mike Smrek (as in wreck) starting at center. And every man, woman and child in the sellout crowd of 17,007 at Reunion Arena scored as many points as Smrek did--none--as the Mavericks manhandled the Lakers, 130-119.

Ever seen a National Basketball Assn. game in which neither starting center made a basket? It happened Saturday night. With Abdul-Jabbar not doing Dallas, having returned to Los Angeles with what was diagnosed as “recurring corneal erosion syndrome” in his right eye, Smrek checked out with five fouls and no field goals in the 12 minutes he managed to stay in the game. And Maverick center James Donaldson took advantage of Abdul-Jabbar’s absence to jam zero balls through the hoop during a 42-minute fireworks display of his own.

Jumbo Jim did, however, throw his 7-foot 2-inch, 277-pound bod around under the basket against Smrek and his Laker understudy, Frank Brickowski, who likewise neglected to score in the eight minutes he was out there. And with guard Rolando Blackman proving with his 39 points that, yes, the ball really did fit through the rims, the Mavericks finally got the best of the Lakers this season on their third try.

Because of the eye inflammation, Abdul-Jabbar also will miss tonight’s game at Houston. Coach Pat Riley is giving Smrek the benefit of the doubt and expects him to do better tonight, although the Rocket center, Akeem Olajuwon, probably will be able to score a basket or two.

The Lakers not only started Saturday night’s game without their center, they also finished it without their coach. Riley was ejected by referee Jake O’Donnell after simultaneous technical fouls called against him with 4:28 remaining in the game. “Christmas is coming awful early out there!” is what Riley later claimed to have said, but stronger language is what actually got him bounced.

Two free throws put the Lakers down by 14 at the point where assistant coach Bill Bertka took control of the team, whereupon Magic Johnson started banging home many of his team-high 34 points, bringing the Lakers back within six. “I remember Magic’s rookie year when he went into Philadelphia in the championship game when Jabbar couldn’t play and scored something like 42 points,” Dallas Coach Dick Motta said. “He almost pulled it out for them again tonight.”

Didn’t happen, though. The Midwest Division-leading Mavericks (17-8) held on to defeat the Pacific Division-leading Lakers (18-6), in what might have been a sneak preview--minus one principal character--of the 1987 Western Conference finals.

It is a rivalry that is beginning to percolate. That much was evident with the fans on their feet chanting “Beat L.A.!” most of the night, and it was even more evident when players traded shoves and dirty looks late in the game. When Donaldson broke loose for a lay-up in the final minute, Johnson was forced to deliberately foul him. Magic apparently believed that, when left wide open, Donaldson did know how to drop the ball through the hoop.

Donaldson stumbled after Johnson hacked him, so Magic grabbed his arm to keep him from taking a header. Donaldson reacted by shoving Magic, which is a little like kicking Mister Rogers. With Johnson busy registering disbelief, Michael Cooper pushed Donaldson. So, Derek Harper pushed Cooper. After which Cooper and A.C. Green had to be restrained from going after Harper.

“I tried to hold him up, and he came up swingin’,” Johnson said. “Well, that’s all right. Next time I just won’t hold him up.”

Bad blood aside, the game was not a particularly hot one. For roughly 2 1/2 periods, the Lakers kept it close, with the 6-9 Green forced to hold the fort at center, where others before him had failed. Green ended up with 21 points and a game-high 15 rebounds, despite spending most of the game at eye level with Donaldson’s neck.

The Mavericks finally shook the Lakers at 68-67 by running off the next 12 points and never looking back. Blackman scored practically at will, missing only five shots all night, while Harper caused havoc everywhere, passing expertly and poking balls away. Harper finished with 21 points, 13 assists and 5 steals.

Harper was pumped up, partly because he had lost a wager with teammate Sam Perkins on the Illinois-North Carolina college game earlier in the day, having foolishly bet on his alma mater, but mostly because the Lakers were ripe to be beaten. “You definitely better beat the Lakers when Kareem is out, or else you don’t deserve to rate yourself up with them at all,” Harper said.

“Magic took over and tried to keep them in it, but even if Kareem was here, I think we’d have beaten them this time. We were right tonight.”

Besides, they owed ‘em one. Last time the Lakers were here, on Nov. 18, the officials permitted the visitors to shoot 22 free throws in the final period while the Mavericks were shooting none. Riley wasn’t enamored with the officiating in this one but reasoned later that the Lakers were unlikely to get the sort of breaks again that they had received last time.

They had enough problems trying to scratch and claw under the basket. While the Mavericks were glad to drive the Kareem-less lane time and again, the Lakers found themselves struggling for every basket without their safety valve on hand. “Usually if we need a basket, we can just look and throw it inside,” Riley said. “There wasn’t that bailout with 10 seconds left (to shoot) that we usually have.”

No one on the club knew until Abdul-Jabbar arrived at Saturday’s shoot-around that his eye had started to trouble him. The Lakers don’t mind when Kareem shows up for work wearing goggles, but they know something’s up when he comes dressed as Rooster Cogburn.

The eye patch looked odd. “Nobody teased him about it, though,” Magic said. “When he can’t play, that’s serious stuff for us.”

It was the first game Abdul-Jabbar had missed since sitting out the final two games of the 1985-86 regular season with an infection in his upper respiratory tract. The Lakers are uncertain how soon he can return to the lineup, or how soon any of his replacements will crack the box scores in categories other than minutes played.