Lakers Don’t Have Enough Streaks Left to Overcome Pacers

A funny thing happened on the way to coaching immortality. Bill Bertka, the underground answer to the question, “Who is the greatest coach ever?” was forced to put his lifetime .750 winning percentage on the line, even if he did have two future Hall of Famers, a three-time all-star and a seven-time all-defensive selection going for him.

It wasn’t enough. The upstart Indiana Pacers, without leading scorer Chuck Person, stood off a last hail of shots that bounced out and ended several streaks in the process, stopping the Lakers, 110-108, Tuesday night in the Forum.

“When was the last time Indiana won a game here?” asked the winning coach, Jack Ramsay.

Try March 10, 1984.

“It must have been equally shocking then,” said Ramsay, laughing.

It also ended the Lakers’ overall winning streak (7), their home winning streak (13, since the loss to Portland Dec. 2) and the Pacers’ road losing streak (6).

If it was an upset, it looked less like one after the Pacers scored the last 10 points of the first half to take a 66-63 lead, then led for the entire second half, running it up to 101-91 with 6:55 left.

There the Lakers set about running them down. It was 110-108 after Vern Fleming missed one of two free throws with 14 seconds left. Bertka called time out and set up a low-post play to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who then came across the lane, took a hook shot, but missed. James Worthy tipped at the rebound, but it missed, too.

The ball rolled out to Byron Scott, who got off an 18-footer, but the ball bounced off the rim as the horn sounded.

Bertka was subbing for Coach Pat Riley, who was in Florida attending the funeral of his brother. Riley is the National Basketball Assn.’s all-time percentage leader at .737. No official figures are kept for interim mentors who spell their bosses for a night or two, but Bertka said he had coached four previous games, subbing for Elgin Baylor when they were with the New Orleans Jazz. Bertka says he went 3-1 and can remember the game detail to prove it.

“The thing about Bill,” said a Laker official, “he can remember details of those games 10 years ago, but he didn’t know where practice was yesterday.”

You think Bertka wasn’t keyed up for this one? There were rumors that the Lakers were going to do something to loosen him up, like have all 12 players demand to start.

Came game time. The Lakers, trying to make things easy on their coach-for-a-night, scored on 10 of their first 11 possessions and grabbed a 20-12 lead. James Worthy made his first 7 shots and had 21 points by halftime.

By then, however, the Lakers no longer had the lead. The Pacers were showing poise a 22-22 team playing in the Forum wasn’t supposed to have. Person’s backup, Wayman Tisdale, who had returned after getting three stitches to close a cut above his right eye which he suffered in the first half, scored six points, including a monster dunk, in Indiana’s 10-0 run.

Trailing going into the second half, Bertka went to the tried-and-true approach--let Magic do it. Magic Johnson started posting up Fleming, 10 points worth in the third period, but the Pacers blunted that drive, too, and kept the lead.

“The game we played against the Lakers in Indianapolis (a 101-98 Laker win) was one of our best of the season,” Ramsay said later.

“Magic just took that one over. We were determined not to let him do that tonight. We sent a second man over whenever he started to go one-on-one.”

Trailing 109-102 with 3:11 left, the Lakers finally managed to put together the rally they had been looking for, mainly on loose-ball fouls after Pacer misses. With 40 seconds left, Worthy hit one of two free throws, cutting the Indiana lead to 109-108.

At the other end, Tisdale forced off a jumper to beat the shot clock and missed it badly but the ball clattered off to Pacer forward Ron Anderson. The Lakers had to foul and put Fleming at the line with 14 seconds left. Fleming missed the first try but made the second. The Lakers would have a chance to tie.

And would fail to take advantage.

“I thought the skyhook Cap (Abdul-Jabbar) shot was going to be good,” Scott said. “Everybody pretty much went to the boards. James tipped it. I got my hands on it. Stuart Gray and Fleming were pretty much there, too. I saw them coming and I took the shot. It was straight but it just wasn’t long enough.”

Which was how Bill Bertka’s lifetime percentage dropped 150 points in a night. Win some, lose some. At the pace he’s going, he’ll get another shot in 1998, and he promises to be ready.

Laker Notes Anyone who says this could have happened only on a night when Stuart Gray got 10 points and a career-high 12 rebounds is absolutely right. That was what Gray, called by Pacer Coach Jack Ramsay “a vastly improved player,” got. He had one embarrassing moment, a dunk or layup attempt (it was hard to tell which) that turned into an airball, but aside from that, he played a fine game, showed off quickness never seen at UCLA (Ramsay: “He’s lost, maybe, 40 pounds”), new left-handed moves and new confidence, too. . . . And now for the other Bruin/Pacer: Before the game, Reggie Miller pretending awe at the Forum surroundings, asked UCLA publicist Mark Dellins, “Who would have thought it?” Miller, 9 for 10 in his last two games, then proceeded to go 0 for 2 from the floor, 0 for 2 at the free-throw line. . . . Billy Thompson says he passed Centinela Hospital Medical Center’s conditioning test “with flying colors” and expects to be reactivated soon. . . . Magic Johnson: “We should have won, of course. We’re the better team, but we weren’t the better team tonight, and that’s all that counts.”