Going Gets Rough, but Lakers Are Still Too Tough, 139-127

Already down 0-2, Denver may be a mere whistle stop on the Lakers’ playoff itinerary. But after hacking away for 37 fouls in Los Angeles’ 139-127 win in Game 2 at the Forum Saturday afternoon, you could say the Nuggets tried to leave their mark.

Or so it seemed when Kurt Rambis emerged from his postgame shower sporting what appeared to be a purplish bruise smack in the middle of his forehead.

Unlike Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who made 12 of 12 free throws en route to a game-high 28 points, or A.C. Green, who made 10 of 11, or Byron Scott, who was 8 of 10, Rambis made just one trip to the line and had only 2 of the Lakers’ 49 successful free throws, which set a club playoff record.

But obviously, someone had done Rambis wrong.

An elbow, perhaps, from Alex English, the frustrated Nugget star who fouled out with just 17 points, once again well below his 28.6 average?

A forearm, perchance, by 6-foot 11-inch Nugget center Danny Schayes, who was called for five fouls and one technical after slamming the ball to the floor?

Or maybe a head butt from Blair Rasmussen (five fouls), a bolo punch by Maurice Martin (five) or a karate chop by Fat Lever, who had just two fouls but snaked inside for a team-high 10 rebounds?

Rambis had a virtual police lineup from which to choose his assailant. All he had to do was name his man.

Would you believe it wasn’t a Nugget at all . . . but Jesse Rambis, the 15-month-old son of the Laker forward?

“Leave them in a room together for five minutes and they start beating on each other,” said a laughing Mitch Kupchak, himself a former body banger who has retired to the more sedate position of Laker assistant general manager.

“I’m telling you,” Kupchak added, “Jesse’s a true Rambis.”

At first, Papa Rambis said his son had struck him in the forehead with a toy hammer. Then, reluctantly, he confessed to what really happened: Cookie Monster did it.

“Jesse has a Cookie Monster toy that has a suction cup on the end of it,” Rambis said, “and I stuck it on my forehead. I was shaking the thing back and forth, and Jesse was laughing his head off.”

The fun lasted until Rambis made a discovery: He couldn’t pry the toy loose. Sesame Street was now in Mr. Rambis’ neighborhood, and there wasn’t much he could do about it.

Finally, Rambis--who night after night does battle with the biggest of the NBA’s gladiators--shook off Cookie Monster. But the toy had left its mark.

“That’s no bruise,” Rambis said. “That’s a giant hickey.”

Meanwhile, it came as no surprise to Denver Coach Doug Moe that the Nuggets had done no damage, despite all the fouls.

“The first half was miserably disappointing,” Moe said. “We were so soft on defense it was almost comical.”

Moe was shocked, however, to learn that Laker Coach Pat Riley had decided Moe’s poor-mouthing of the Nuggets was a discredit to the Lakers.

“We have worked for seven months to get here,” Riley said. “ . . . When we get to the playoffs, we take it very seriously. I expect our opponents to feel the same way.

“It seems that it has discredited the Lakers. The talk has been that the Nuggets don’t deserve to be here rather than the Lakers playing well. I don’t understand Doug’s tactics, but he can do and say what he wants.”

Moe said Riley had it all wrong.

“If it discredits them to say they’re too good for us and they’re going to win the whole thing. . . . I think it was a compliment,” Moe said.

“I’d say there’s an ego involved who’s looking at it in a strange way. That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard. There’s an ego involved there I can’t explain.”

Riley, reached at home Saturday night, refused to be drawn into a verbal battle with Moe.

“I’m not getting into that,” he said. “I just made a statement, and it wasn’t directed at what Doug said or didn’t say.

“I just think that whole angle is way out in left field. They (the Nuggets) deserve to be here because they’re here.

“I’m not going to get into something with him. I could care less. We’re ahead, 2-0, and that’s all I care about. How he operates and I operate are two different things.”

The same, obviously, could be said of the teams. On Thursday, the Nuggets permitted the Lakers to score a playoff-record-tying 82 points in the first half en route to a lead that grew to a high of 48 points. The final score was 128-95.

Saturday was only marginally better. The Lakers were ahead, 16-4, in the first four minutes and up by 17 points, 40-23, after one quarter. At one point, the Laker front line had outscored Denver’s 26-6, and Green had 10 points and Abdul-Jabbar 8 in the first 12 minutes.

The lead was 73-55 at halftime, which ended with Magic Johnson letting loose again from long range. This time, Johnson, who had scored from 77 feet 8 inches Thursday night, missed from midcourt.

The Nuggets, with guard Darrell Walker throwing in eight straight points, played a little better in the third quarter and closed to 14 points, 86-72, before first Schayes, and then Moe, were called for technicals.

Magic Johnson, who had 21 points and 15 rebounds, tipped in a miss, fed Scott (16 points) for a breakaway layup, and Michael Cooper buried a three-pointer from the top of the key.

It was 105-88 after three quarters, and the Nuggets drew to within a dozen, 106-94, before the Lakers took a 20-second timeout with 10:13 left. When they came back, Magic sank a 15-footer, and Rambis made two straight steals, setting up Cooper for a base-line jumper and then the knockout punch, another three-pointer by Cooper.

“I thought we had them in the nervous stage a couple of times,” said Denver forward Bill Hanzlik, who started in place of Wayne Cooper Saturday.

“On the bright side, they had to call time out--I think twice.”

Hanzlik didn’t argue Moe’s point that the Nuggets were a soft touch Saturday.

“I think we were so worried about getting back on defense that we forgot about banging and playing tough,” Hanzlik said.

Near the end of the third quarter, Moe seemed to take his frustrations out on Hanzlik, dressing him down in full view of the Forum crowd and a national TV audience. Hanzlik snapped something back.

A fallout between player and coach? In this case, it was nothing new.

“With Hanzlik--are you kidding me?” Moe said. “It’s an every-day thing with me and Hanzlik. We’re too close. I’m the original no-hoper and he’s my copy.”

The Nuggets’ only remaining hope is a win back home in Denver, the only thing that could stave off their elimination in the best-of-five series. The series resumes Wednesday night in McNichols Arena.

“Do I have hope going back home?” Moe said. “Well, we’re 0-7 (against the Lakers) this season, and going off that, I’d say no.”

Now, if Moe could only line up Bert and Ernie to play . . .

Laker Notes

Denver forward Alex English, on his second straight subpar scoring game: “They (the Lakers) didn’t take me out of my game, the officials did today. You can’t play your game with six fouls.” . . . For the second straight game, Denver center Blair Rasmussen drew two fouls in the game’s first couple of minutes and was forced to the bench. “That makes it awfully tough in my situation,” he said. “It’s upsetting. You pick up two fouls and then when you go back in, you become tentative.” On the play of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who scored 28 points before sitting out the fourth quarter, Rasmussen said: “He played good, but the guys who killed us were (Kurt) Rambis and A.C. Green on the boards.” “ . . . Bill Hanzlik said Coach Doug Moe blew up at him at the end of the third quarter because he took a three-pointer with about 36 seconds left when Moe wanted him to wind down the clock. “I hollered over to him a couple of times whether he wanted us to go for two shots, but I didn’t get a reply,” Hanzlik said. “I thought I took a good shot, but I missed it.” . . . The crowd was announced at 17,287, which is 218 short of a sellout.