Time Out Does In the Spurs, 133-132

Everybody has a night he’ll never forget and Friday was Alvin Robertson’s, more’s the pity. Just when it looked as if he was about to ascend to a higher league and take the Lakers into overtime to boot, he heard the saddest of all possible words:

“Time out.”

Laker Coach Pat Riley said that.

For good measure, Riley said it twice, after Robertson had made the first of two free-throw attempts with 3 seconds left, cutting the Laker lead to 133-132, cooling the lead Spur from his former molten incarnation to the consistency of a frosty margarita.

Voila! Robertson grazed his second attempt off the inside of the rim and out, leaving the score 133-132 and making our near-hero’s final line 28 points, 9 rebounds, 11 assists and 1 game lost.

And that wasn’t all. He hit a key three-pointer with 31 seconds left. He blocked a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar dunk in the open court all by his skinny, 6-foot 4-inch self. His coach, Bob Weiss, said later that if it was any consolation, the Spurs wouldn’t have been close without him.

“It’s no consolation,” Robertson said.

“It’s a tough situation,” said an admiring Magic Johnson, “especially after you’ve had such a great game. He single-handedly brought ‘em back. Alvin played as hard as I’ve ever seen him tonight. He was awesome tonight.”

Awesome didn’t quite get it, but came close. The Lakers arose at 5 a.m. in Denver, flew here and started the game looking the part. The Spurs rang up a 40-point first quarter on them and grabbed an early 12-point lead.

The Lakers had the lead by halftime and ran it up to 124-115 with 4:57 left. The Spurs, led by Robertson, ex-Laker Frank Brickowski (28 points), Johnny Dawkins (22) and Walter Berry (19) chased them to the bitter end.

With 1:36 left, Brickowski made one of two free throws, tying it, 126-126.

With 1:12 left, Mychal Thompson, subbing for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who had fouled out, hit a 12-footer over Brickowski to make it 128-126.

With 55 seconds left, Brickowski scored over Thompson at the other end. Thompson and Brickowski, of course, were traded for each other.

With 44 seconds left, Johnson, fouled by Robertson as he drove across the lane, made two free throws. Lakers, 130-128.

With 31 seconds left, Robertson drilled his three-pointer from the top of the circle. Spurs, 131-130.

With 11 seconds left and time running out on the shot clock, James Worthy drew a foul--barely--on Mike Mitchell and made two free throws. Lakers, 132-131.

With 10 seconds left, Thompson stole Mitchell’s in-bounds pass. The Spurs fouled Michael Cooper at :08, but Cooper made only one of two. Lakers, 133-131.

The Spurs in-bounded to Dawkins, who brought it up as fast as only he can, and hit Robertson, a greyhound streaking down the right wing. Even against a Laker defense that was already back, Robertson got to the baseline, went up for a windmill dunk and was fouled.

Robertson went to the line and sank his first free throw cleanly.

Riley called a 20-second timeout. When it expired, he called a full timeout. With a few seconds added for confusion, Robertson had about 2:30 on his hands.

“It’s basic,” Riley said. “I had a lot of them (timeouts) left, and Alvin had such great rhythm on the first one. I just wanted him to think about it.”

Said Johnson: “You’ve got more time to think about it--which you don’t want. You’d rather have the ball. Everybody’s talking to you, all your teammates. It just seems to take something away.

“We called the 20, we called the timeout and he’s saying, ‘Man . . . ‘ He just wanted to get it and shoot it.”

When Robertson did get it, he shot fairly quickly and missed. He said he planned it that way, all except for the missing.

“I was looking forward to the next (overtime) period, that’s for sure,” he said. “I knew how important the free throw was but I didn’t want to dwell on it. I wanted to step up and shoot it like I always do. Maybe I should have taken more time.”

Had the timeouts bothered him?

“Not really,” he said, easily. I kept the free throw off my mind.”

How?

“It’s only a free throw,” he shrugged. “I’m a 78% free-throw shooter.”

This must have been one of the wrong 22% then.

“I think the timeouts might have bothered him,” Spur Coach Bob Weiss said. “I think it’s a good strategy.

“I do that, take a timeout between shots. (Laughing) Never works for me, though.”

Them that’s got was them that gets, once more. The Lakers closed their trip 2-0 and went home to get ready for their big week (Celtics, Clippers, at Houston, at Atlanta, Detroit).

Late in the evening, Robertson stood staring at a box score and his line under the free-throw column.

“Five for six,” he said, shaking his head. Some nights, it goes like that.