STILL FRIENDLY FOES : Johnson and Thomas Are at Peace; Lakers and Pistons Go to War Tonight

When the heat was on Isiah Thomas last spring for his remark about Larry Bird--”If Larry Bird was black he’d be just another good player,” Thomas said after losing Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals to the Boston Celtics--Magic Johnson called his long-time friend but refused to go public with his thoughts.

“I won’t answer for Isiah,” Johnson said at the time. “I’m going to answer for Magic.”

There have been hints since that Thomas felt betrayed by Johnson’s silence, but when the Lakers traveled to Detroit Thursday for tonight’s game against the Pistons at the Pontiac Silverdome, Magic’s plans included dinner with Thomas and his wife.

The friendship has remained intact, Johnson said, and so has the rivalry, which may pose the biggest threat yet to the Lakers’ 12-game winning streak, the longest in the National Basketball Assn. this season.

The Lakers haven’t beaten the Pistons on the road since the 1983-84 season, having lost three straight times. Last season, Detroit won, 119-114, despite Johnson’s 34 points and 9 assists before his hometown fans.

Thomas averaged 23 points and 11 assists in the Pistons’ two games against the Lakers last season, and this season he has led Detroit to a 19-8 record, third-best in the NBA.

And although the furor that erupted over the comments made by Thomas and Piston rookie Dennis Rodman has all but died down--especially after Bird absolved Thomas at an extraordinary press conference before the NBA Finals last season--there are indications that Thomas feels scarred by the incident.

Once almost as sunny and accessible as Magic, Thomas has been more guarded, especially with reporters. Recently, when the Detroit Free Press asked him for a comment as part of a stay-in-school campaign, Thomas--who won the league’s citizenship award a year ago, primarily for his efforts to organize an anti-crime day in Detroit--begged off.

“I don’t know if Larry and I will ever be able to talk again,” Thomas said earlier this season, before the Pistons’ first meeting with the Celtics. “But even if we never do become close, I know I’m always going to consider him one of my best friends. I mean, he saved me. He didn’t have to.”

Johnson said he understands why Thomas might have drawn inward.

“I don’t care what happens, it’s going to affect you,” Johnson said. “I know first-hand from the (Paul) Westhead thing. It’s a different situation, but it’s the same type of situation.”

Johnson was referring to the public beating he took when Paul Westhead was fired as coach of the Lakers in 1981 and Johnson was blamed for Westhead’s removal.

“People are still going to write about it and talk about it, and fans don’t forget, either,” Johnson said. “Sure, it’s going to affect you.”

Johnson said he hasn’t seen Thomas since September, when they attended a private retirement party for Julius Erving thrown by Dr. J’s wife, Turquoise. But as they had done in other summers, Johnson said, he and Thomas and Mark Aguirre took a trip together last summer. He said that Thomas understood why Johnson had not put himself in the midst of the Bird controversy.

“When that happened, Isiah had to deal with it himself,” Johnson said. “He just had to talk to Larry. What am I going to say? The only thing I can answer is how I feel about Larry and how I feel about Isiah.”

Besides, Johnson said, there was a championship final to be played against the Celtics.

“There was business at hand and I had to deal with it,” Johnson said. “I didn’t want to take away anything from the championship. People would have been asking me about it that whole series. I didn’t want it to take away from what I was doing.”

Johnson acknowledged that he doesn’t spend as much time with Thomas and Aguirre as he once did, especially since all three players left agent George Andrews and went their separate ways.

“I think right now, with the maturity of everybody, we do more outside of each other,” Johnson said. “And not being under the same representation has made a difference.”

Piston assistant coach Dick Versace--he’s the guy who looks as if he borrowed a powdered wig from George Washington--was in Los Angeles Wednesday night to scout the Laker-Dallas Maverick game. He offered this preview of tonight’s game:

“We just went through an unbelievable home stand, where we played 12 games in a 30-day period and 10 were at home, and we won 11 of 12,” he said. “That’s a significant accomplishment, but winning like that lulls you to sleep. It breaks reality.

“We had a very disappointing loss to Houston in which our guards shot 9 of 40. Then we turned around against Indiana. Our guards shot 13 of 39 but we won because Adrian Dantley had a time-capsule performance, one of the greatest individual performances I’ve ever seen. He had 31 points, 8 assists and 8 rebounds, and he held Chuck Person to 9 points.”

Last weekend, the Pistons lost at home to Denver, 151-142.

“You can’t say Chuck Daly (Piston coach) doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Versace said. “Chuck came in at halftime that game and said, ‘Now look, if you keep this up they’re going to score 150 on you.’ ”

Last Tuesday night in Atlanta, the Pistons scored only 71 points--a franchise-low since the inception of the shot clock in 1954-55--in a loss to the Hawks. But then they reversed that outcome with a 90-87 win over the Hawks at the Silverdome.

“The Lakers are getting us at a good time,” Versace said. “We’re not in rhythm. I don’t know if we’re struggling, but we’re vacillating.”

The Pistons took the Celtics to a seventh game before bowing in the Eastern Conference finals last season and might have won if an inbounds pass by Thomas hadn’t been intercepted by Bird in Game 5, and if Dantley and Vinnie Johnson hadn’t bumped heads in Game 7, sending Dantley to the hospital and knocking Johnson silly.

Said Piston General Manager Jack McCloskey, asked about the Thomas pass: “I’ll never forget it. I think that when I’m on my deathbed at age 120 or whatever, I’ll turn to whoever is at my side and say, ‘We shouldn’t have made that pass.’ Those may be my final words.”

Has Detroit cracked the inner circle, joining the Lakers and Celtics, along with perhaps Atlanta?

“We definitely have those aspirations,” Versace said. “But I don’t think one year allows you to enter it. Banners are hard to come by, and rings can’t be bought.”

Of the Lakers, Versace said: “They’re so hard to beat. They have so many places they can hurt you--Scott, Abdul-Jabbar, Magic, Worthy, Green. Even their bench can hurt you. They have such a commitment to their way of playing. And (Pat) Riley is probably doing one of the greatest jobs of coaching in the history of the game.”

Run that one by us again? The same Pat Riley who, it is said, merely has to make sure the ball is inflated for the Lakers to win?

“He’s so underrated,” Versace said. “I’ve had a lot of good teams who’ve won big (Versace coached at Bradley University), and I know that when you win big, the coaching is overlooked.”