Lakers Get on Track in Denver : They Catch Nuggets With Guards Down and Win, 120-108

If it takes two wins over the Lakers to make the local basketball season, then the Denver Nuggets are going to have to keep playing. They led only for the length of time it took the Lakers to catch their breath in the mile-high air, after which it was see you later, little fellas.

The Lakers ran up a 17-point lead and beat Doug Moe’s assortment of three-guard lineups, 120-108, Thursday night, ending their losing streak at one game, and their local losing streak at one, too.

And if this counts, another potential indignity was avoided when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar bounced a hook shot off the rim--several times--and into the basket with 6:56 left in the game. It was his first, and as it turned out, his only field goal, so he was that close to being blanked from the field for the first time since . . .

When?

In his Laker career? His National Basketball Assn. career? UCLA? Power Memorial? P.S. 52?

Had he ever gone 0-for?

“Not that I can remember,” Abdul-Jabbar said later.

Was he aware he was on the verge of it?

“Vaguely.”

Did it mean anything to him?

“I just wanted us to get the win,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “We were playing real well. They didn’t really need my points. It was just a case of maintaining everything and taking the win.”

He finished with seven points, his sixth single-digit game since his double-figures streak ended at 787 on Dec. 4. He was right, the Lakers didn’t need his points.

The Nuggets, 18-4 at home including a win over the Lakers three weeks ago, grabbed an early seven-point lead. But the Lakers hit them with a 13-3 burst to close the first period, including five points and an assist by Michael Cooper. When Cooper dropped a three-pointer on the Nuggets with five seconds left, the Lakers were ahead, 29-26. They liked the lead so much, they never surrendered it.

“I don’t think there’s a player who comes to Denver or Utah to play, who doesn’t want to play well,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “But then you get out there and after three or four minutes, you hit that wall. We were going to substitute after five or six minutes. As soon as I saw someone was tired, I got him out of there.”

Riley returned to work after attending his brother’s funeral in Florida. In his absence, the Lakers were surprised at home by the Indiana Pacers, an event Riley didn’t exactly laugh off. Teams don’t get to be 36-9 because their mentor takes losing cavalierly.

“I didn’t like it, obviously,” Riley said. “I don’t think anybody did.

“I talked to Bill Bertka. I talked to Earvin Johnson. Earvin gave Bill Bertka a hell of a lot of credit.

“He said, ‘He had us ready, he had us prepared. We knew what they were going to run. We just didn’t stop them.’

“Coming off the All-Star game--it isn’t just us, it’s happened to a lot of teams--sometimes you lose the focus. . . . I mean, it happens quick in this league. You lose one, you lose the second, the next thing you know, you’re working on four out of five. We just wanted to play a good all-around game and win.

“We had a good conversation this morning about effort. We just have to get back to the basics. We haven’t been finishing off our stuff at the defensive end of the court.

“The last time we were here, we had a 16-point lead, quit playing and lost. We didn’t want that to happen again.

“You shouldn’t tolerate mediocrity. The players shouldn’t tolerate it in me. The players shouldn’t let me tolerate it in them.”

Nobody tolerated anything. What amounted to a Denver attempt at a comeback was single-handedly mounted in the second quarter by . . .

Michael Adams?

None other. The smallest player on the floor, the 5-foot 10-inch Adams, six inches shorter than Byron Scott who tried to guard him and vice versa, had 18 points by halftime, making this a candidate for outstanding performance by a smurf in a lost cause.

Included were 4 of 6 three-point shots. Adams literally shoots from the hip, but many go in, which tends to cut down the laughter.

“You’ve just got to always be aware of him,” Scott said. “If you aren’t, he’ll kill you.”

In the second half, Scott was hyper-wary, and the smurf danger passed. No other succeeded it.

Thus it was that the Lakers, burning at recent indignities, however few, restored themselves to the win column that they figure they shouldn’t have left. All seemed right, in their world anyway.

“We should be embarrassed by our play tonight,” Nugget Coach Doug Moe said. “It wasn’t a good effort.

“The one thing that keeps me from being disappointed, the Lakers were so good, I don’t know if we could have won anyway.”

Laker Notes

The Lakers are 16-6 on the road, a league best. The Boston Celtics (14-11) are the only other team playing better than .500 on the road. . . . Kareem Abdul-Jabbar also got a technical foul from referee Blane Reichelt, to whom he had protested on one or two other occasions. This time, Abdul-Jabbar was sitting on the bench when a Laker was ruled to have fouled Alex English. Abdul-Jabbar yelled “He just stood there!” and Reichelt whistled the technical. When the public address announcer said it was on Pat Riley, Abdul-Jabbar raised his hand high in the air and pointed to himself.