THE LESSON : Mavericks’ Ouster Reminds Lakers of How Mighty Can Fall in the Playoffs

Although they didn’t know which team they would be playing next in the National Basketball Assn. playoffs, there were plenty of knowing looks at Laker practice Friday morning about one they won’t be seeing this spring--the Dallas Mavericks.

The Mavericks, who had beaten the Lakers three straight times in the regular season and generally were accorded the best chance of knocking off the Lakers in the playoffs, were eliminated in a first-round upset by the Seattle SuperSonics.

The SuperSonics, who had lost five in a row to the Dallas Mavericks by an average of 18 1/2 points in the regular season, recovered from the Mavericks’ 151-point first-game playoff explosion and won the next three games handily.

For the Lakers, that was reminiscent of their own playoff comeuppance last season, when they beat Houston easily in the first game of the Western Conference finals, only to lose four straight to the Rockets.

“I talked about that today,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “I told them, ‘I don’t need to remind you or put a scare in you, but what happened to the fourth-best team in the league can also happen to you.’ ”

Seattle will play Houston, which dispatched the Portland Trail Blazers in four games, in a best-of-seven second-round series beginning today. The Lakers will play the winner of the Utah-Golden State series.

“That’s what happens when you overlook people,” Magic Johnson said of the Mavericks’ early ouster. “That’s what happens when you’re that sure of yourselves.”

Laker forward James Worthy said he wasn’t surprised by the outcome.

“The playoffs are a different story,” he said. “You can’t take anyone for granted. (The Mavericks) were waiting to go against us. They’d won three against us. But they didn’t win anything.

“You just can’t give a team a breath of hope, like they did by losing to Seattle in Dallas.”

The SuperSonics won Game 2, 112-110, on two free throws by former Maverick Dale Ellis with two seconds left.

Worthy said that the Mavericks had sorely missed center James Donaldson, who had a stress reaction in his right leg, but he was quick to point out that Seattle had also been missing its starting center, Alton Lister.

“Dallas needs a big man like Donaldson to play defense,” Worthy said. “When they don’t have that, it leaves guys like X (Seattle’s Xavier McDaniel) to roam inside.

“But there are no legitimate excuses (for the Mavericks’ defeat).”

The Lakers aren’t inclined to overlook anybody this season, Riley said.

“Our practice today was as spirited as any we’ve had all season. You just can’t let your guard down. You really can’t. You can’t be making plans to be somewhere else and not be taking care of today.

“I think we’ll do everything right, from the vantage point of working hard, and see how the chips fall. We don’t want to put ourselves in the position of looking back and saying, ‘We didn’t work hard enough last week.’ ”

Magic Johnson said he had not yet called Dallas forward Mark Aguirre, one of his best friends.

“Maybe later today,” Johnson said. “It’s kind of hard to deal with right now for him.”

Johnson, of course, knows only too well.

Riley was stung by the charges sent his way by Denver Coach Doug Moe, who suggested that Riley had an ego problem when the Laker coach said that Moe’s blunt and frequent assessment of the Nuggets’ chances as hopeless was a discredit to the Lakers.

That assessment, of course, was borne out when the Lakers won three straight games by an average of 27.4 points.

“I’d been saying the same thing all along, but I got all the publicity (in Los Angeles), so (Riley) was hurt,” Moe said earlier this week. “And they’ve got egos. You’ve got to feed those egos all the time . . . I say what I feel.”

Other Nuggets officials got in on the theme, such as Denver club President Vince Boryla, who suggested that Riley should “take his Ouija board, motion offense, fancy clothes and hair” and coach the Clippers for a year and learn a little humility.

The media also took some shots, most pointedly in a cartoon in one Denver newspaper that showed Riley saying, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the greatest coach of them all?” Peering out of the mirror was the face of Moe, sticking his tongue out at the Laker coach.

Before the last game in Denver, Riley had said he would have a response to Moe. But by Friday, apparently, his anger had cooled.

“I’m just going to let it go,” Riley said. “Doug has a philosophy of his own, I have mine, and they’re at the opposite ends of the spectrum as to how we approach things.

“My whole statement is, this is how I am. I want to leave my team, any team, with a feeling of dignity and honor. And the only way you can get that is by really believing you can win, and always striving to win, in spite of the odds.

“If you don’t think you can win, the only thing you can set your team up for is humiliation.

“That’s my philosophy. I’m not looking to take a shot at him.”

In each of the last two previous playoffs, Riley took exception to comments made by Dallas Coach Dick Motta, who the first time said the Mavericks could not beat the Lakers, then predicted that the Mavericks would. The Lakers won both times.

“I think Dick was really using those comments as tactics,” Riley said. “I don’t think Doug was. I think Doug really believed that. That’s different.”

Asked why he became such a target during this series, Riley said: “I can’t read their minds. We’ve been successful for eight years and I’ve worked very hard to keep a positive image.

“I’m not bombastic. I don’t make controversial statements. I don’t pat myself on the back and take a majority of the credit. In some ways, I try to avoid the spotlight . . .

“I think it goes back to how I got the job, that I was lucky, and look at the players I have. But I can’t worry about that.”

Riley and Moe, incidentally, did not shake hands after Wednesday’s game. The Laker coach did say, however, that a Nugget official had apologized to him for some of Moe’s comments.