Lakers Turn It Into a Rout at Portland, 140-104 : Scott Scores 31 Points as L.A. Beats Trail Blazers for the Ninth Straight Time

Mike Schuler, the first-year coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, didn’t wake up with a splitting headache Thursday morning. That came Thursday night, when the Lakers delivered a stronger kick than a dozen shots of cheap gin.

“I don’t have New Year’s hangovers,” Schuler said after the Lakers’ 140-104 win over the Trail Blazers before a sellout crowd of 12,666 in the Memorial Coliseum, “but I don’t know of any team in basketball that could have beaten the Lakers tonight--whether they played on New Year’s Day, Christmas Eve, the 4th of July or the first game of the season.”

It certainly doesn’t take any special occasions for the Lakers to beat the Trail Blazers, who have fallen nine straight times to the Lakers and in 22 of their last 25 meetings. The 36-point loss matched their worst ever to the Lakers, a 137-101 beating in December, 1972.

And not that they needed to rub it in, but the Lakers reached their season high in points on a night that Magic Johnson--who had been averaging 31.4 points in his last nine games--went scoreless in the first half.

He didn’t have to score, not with Byron Scott and Michael Cooper hitting nearly everything they put up, including three of three three-pointers each.

Scott, who made 11 of 15 shots, finished with 31 points in 33 minutes, and Cooper made 7 of 10 for 19 points in 26 minutes. That was outside.

Inside, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar made 8 of 10 shots, A.C. Green 7 of 11, scorching the Trail Blazers on their home court, where they had lost just twice this season.

“We were scoring so much and creating so many things for each other that he (Johnson) just said, ‘What the heck, I’m just going to get it to the other guys because they’re scoring so well,’ ” said Scott, who was on the receiving end of many of Johnson’s 18 assists, which matched his season high.

Scott also made seven steals, six in the first half when he undressed Portland point guard Terry Porter.

“I was aggressive and gambling a lot more than I’ve done,” said Scott, whose seven steals matched his career best.

His grand larceny, however, came earlier in the day, when he suckered a friend into wagering against his alma mater, Arizona State, in the Rose Bowl.

“I flew down to their first two games,” Scott said, “and after talking to a couple of their boys, I knew they were going to be good. They told me their coach, Cooper (John, not Michael) could take them to the Rose Bowl.”

The Trail Blazers had a better record (11-3) than any team in the National Basketball Assn. last month, but fell behind by 7 after one quarter, 15 at the half, before being blown out by the Lakers’ 40-point third quarter.

“They literally did anything they wanted to do,” Schuler said. “They ran the ball down our throats and shot extremely well from the outside.

“They’re quicker than we are, their overall speed is better than ours. They have more runners than we have.

“And when they shoot like that. . . . “

The Lakers shot better than 60% in each of the first three quarters, and shot 59% in the last, when the bench took over and outscored Portland, 36-29.

Adrian Branch, the former Maryland star and Continental Basketball Assn. refugee, was the leader of the second-team kamikazes, scoring 11 fourth-quarter points, including a jam over 7-foot Caldwell Jones. Branch was fouled on the play, too.

“Adrian’s the type of player who’s going to be another Mike McGee--he’s going to score,” Scott said. “He’s the type of player who, in a couple of years, will be a big part of this team.

“I really think he’s going to become a real good seventh man.”

At the moment, no one can touch the Lakers’ front-liners.

“It’s important that we establish ourselves against teams that are on the rise, like Portland and Golden State and Utah,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “They look at us like they can beat us.”

They have 364 more days to show that they can.

Laker Notes

Kiki Vandeweghe led Portland with 21 points. . . . Laker Coach Pat Riley, on why top draft choice Billy Thompson had sat out six straight games before playing in the last two: “Mike McGee didn’t play at all his first year. Billy is a talented player who needs to learn the game. He’s not out of my plans. He’s not in my doghouse. Right now, he’s my 11th or 12th man. He’s not ready yet, but he will be ready. He hasn’t done anything in a negative way. His attitude has been good. If he was with Cleveland or the Clippers and wasn’t playing, then he’d have something to gripe about.”