Grieving Magic Tries to Find Solace on Court; Lakers Lose to Dallas

When Mark Aguirre’s mother died last spring at the age of 41, the Dallas Mavericks forward turned to the mother of his good friend, Magic Johnson, for comfort.

“I talked to her a lot,” Aguirre said. “She helped me through my situation.”

Solace could be found, too, on the basketball court.

“It was the only escape I had,” Aguirre said. “It was great while I was playing, but when the game was over, it was back to reality, and reality hurt.”

That reality intruded again Saturday, only this time the pain was Magic’s, with Aguirre cast in the role of comforter. The day before, Mary Johnson, one of Magic’s five sisters, had died on her 33rd birthday, succumbing to a long illness.

Johnson played Saturday and led the Lakers with 25 points and 12 assists and also grabbed 7 rebounds as they were routed by the Mavericks, 132-117, before a sellout crowd of 17,007 at Reunion Arena.

But Aguirre, who scored 35 points, all in the first three quarters, could feel what Johnson was going through.

“He tries to hide his emotions,” Aguirre said, “but I could tell. I could just feel it.”

So while the rest of the Lakers were returning home to Los Angeles after what was a satisfying 4-1 trip, notwithstanding Saturday’s defeat, Johnson returned home to East Lansing, Mich., for the funeral of his sister.

“Of course it’s tough,” he said quietly after the game. “I tried to block it out of my mind.

“I knew it was going to happen at some point. You just never know when in a situation like that.

“On to other things now. What about the game?”

The nationally televised game belonged to the Mavericks, who shattered a 76-76 tie by scoring on 14 of their next 15 possessions to take a 13-point lead, 102-89, after three quarters.

“You can’t sustain any game when your defense breaks down,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said after his team’s six-game winning streak had come to an end. “We stepped back and blinked a couple of times, and they just did a job on us.”

And it wasn’t just Aguirre. He was sitting down while the Maverick lead grew to 23 points, 122-99, midway through the fourth quarter on a basket by guard Brad Davis, the one-time Laker who came off the bench to score a season-high 21 points.

Not even five three-point bombs by Laker guard Michael Cooper, who tied an NBA high this season, could keep the game from becoming a runaway.

Davis scored 11 points in the last 3:55 of the first half, including three straight three-point plays in the last 65 seconds.

Davis snaked past Byron Scott for a layup, was fouled and made the free throw to cut a 64-57 Laker lead to four points.

He threw in a three-pointer from the right side after two free throws by Johnson to make it 66-63, then tossed in a 25-foot runner, landing in the foul circle after the shot, to beat the buzzer.

“A lucky shot,” Davis said. “I could practice that shot a thousand times and not make another.”

Besides Aguirre and Davis, four other Mavericks finished in double figures--Rolando Blackman had 20; Derek Harper and Sam Perkins had 18 apiece, and center James Donaldson had 10.

Donaldson also appeared ready to come to blows with A.C. Green after being knocked to the floor by the Laker forward in the third quarter. Harper stepped in front of the 7-2, 277-pound Donaldson, who also exchanged angry words with Magic Johnson.

“It was something that was uncalled for,” Donaldson said. “I had a clear way to the basket, but he (Green) tried to knock me out of the play and out of bounds.

“That really riled me up, and I think it put a spark in us. The team rallied behind it and got excited and enthused. Until then, the game was being played on an even keel, but that pushed us over the edge.”

The Mavericks, trailing, 74-72, at the time, outscored the Lakers, 30-15, the rest of the quarter.

But it was obvious as early as the first quarter, when he dived about 20 feet across the floor for a loose ball, that Aguirre didn’t need to be pushed to be up for the Lakers.

“Even if we had played the Lakers on a playground, this game would have been very significant for us,” said Aguirre, whose skills have never been questioned, only his heart, in a long-running battle with Dallas Coach Dick Motta.

“At that point, I thought I had to do anything whatsoever for us to win. I felt the ball was close enough for me to get it. I made up my mind that at least I would try.”

Riley ran four different players--Green, Cooper, James Worthy and Kurt Rambis--to try to slow down Aguirre, but he might as well have tried to put a muzzle on Chick Hearn.

Aguirre threw in turnaround jumpers while surrounded by three players, hit bombs from every part of the court, parted the Laker defense for drives inside on which he scored with either hand, and, of course, added a couple of jams.

He had 14 points in the first quarter, when both teams broke 60% from the field while playing to a 36-36 tie. He had another nine points in the second quarter and a dozen more in the third.

“With him going the way he was going, I felt so confident in him,” said Dallas point guard Harper, who matched Johnson for a game-high 12 assists.

“I just wanted to get the ball to him more and more.”

On the Mavericks’ bulletin board before the game, assistant coach Richie Adubato had listed Dallas’ primary objective: Slow down Magic. Harper thought the Mavericks succeeded.

“He’s going to have those spurts when he gets loose from you,” Harper said, “but I thought we made him earn everything he got. He didn’t get a lot of easy baskets on us.”

The Lakers, playing for the fifth time in seven days, knew this one wasn’t going to be easy. No team had scored more points against the Lakers than the Mavericks, who rolled up 130 last month when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was out with an eye inflammation. Saturday, despite 24 points by Abdul-Jabbar, who made 11 of 13 shots, they beat that total by two.

“We got our butts whipped royally,” Riley said. “They just stuck it in our faces.”

One look at the Maverick faces is all it took to see what this game meant to Dallas. When it was over, Harper picked up the ball and threw it toward the ceiling.

“This was a wonderful win for us,” Harper said, “with the game on national TV and all. This has become a real rivalry, and as a team, we gained a lot of confidence today.”

And the Lakers may have seen a portent of things to c ome.

“It looks like it’s going to be them,” Johnson said, when asked about the Lakers’ primary challengers in the West. “The way they’re playing, and when you look at their record (26-14) that’s an indication they’ll be there.”

Laker Notes

Michael Cooper made five three-point shots in six attempts, matching Denver’s Mike Evans for most three-point baskets in a game this season. . . . Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who had not scored 20 points in consecutive games this season until this trip, has scored 20 or more in three straight games. . . . The Mavericks committed just seven turnovers, none in the decisive third quarter. . . . Magic Johnson, on why he took exception to James Donaldson’s threatening gestures toward A.C. Green after Green had fouled the Dallas center in the third quarter: “I don’t like some of the things he’s done after a play, after he’s been fouled, coming up swinging. I don’t think that’s right. It’s all right if he hits somebody, but if he’s fouled hard, he’s ready to fight.” Donaldson once tossed Cooper over a row of photographers in one incident. . . .Magic Johnson is expected to return to Los Angeles in time for Tuesday night’s game with the Portland Trail Blazers at the Forum. He was embraced by Coach Pat Riley before he left for his sister’s funeral. “Stay cool, fellas,” Johnson said to his teammates as he left.