Laker Poetry in Motion Breaks Rocket Rhythm

The Lakers continued their blithe romp through what their publicity department has named “Hell Week.”

The question is, “Hell for whom?”

Or, “Who in hell turned these guys loose?”

The resurgent Rockets took their turn on the firing line Thursday night and, potential notwithstanding, down they went, too, with their usual terrifying thud. The Lakers, who had hit 18 straight shots to take a 41-22 lead in their last meeting, went 19 for 25 this time for an even bigger 41-21 margin and cruised to a 111-96 victory before a subdued crowd of 16,611.

It’s not nice to pose a threat to your world champions. The Lakers are 40-9, the best start since the Portland Trail Blazers went 41-8 in 1978-79.

Sunday they felled the Celtics, kingpins of the Eastern Conference. Thursday they delivered a belated valentine to everybody’s sleeping giant in the West, the Rockets, the only conference team to keep the Lakers out of the National Basketball Assn. finals in the ‘80s:

Roses are red

Violets are blue

While we’re still around

You’re No. 2.

Cruising, however, was not as easy Thursday night as it might have been. Mychal Thompson had an upset stomach and went back to the team’s hotel.

More ominously, Michael Cooper hurt his left ankle late in the game. He crumpled to the floor, pulled himself over the sideline and was carried to the dressing room.

He was subsequently examined at a nearby hospital, where X-rays on his ankle were negative. The Lakers, sobered by the sight of Cooper, who is rarely injured, unable to leave under his own power, heaved a sigh of relief you could hear in Inglewood.

It was the first dark cloud over Lakerdom in recent memory, give or take a Clipper-Pacer-Nugget upset. The rest of the evening, of course, was the standard merry rout.

You could have season tickets from now until Michael Jackson’s presidency and never see anything like those 18 in a row the Lakers made against the Rockets in the Forum, a month ago to the day. Even Laker Coach Pat Riley called it “a little bit of a fluke.”

So Thursday night, the Lakers did it again, pretty much.

They made their first six shots before A.C. Green missed an open 18-footer.

They made five more before Byron Scott missed a 20-footer, but James Worthy got the rebound and scored on a 10-foot jumper.

Then Magic Johnson missed a 12-foot hook, but Green tipped this one back in.

Then the Lakers made their next five shots in a withering volley of fast breaks--three layups by Scott, a dunk by Green and a layup by Johnson. Rocket Coach Bill Fitch, who had already twice called time out attempting to halt the Lakers’ tide, just sat there and watched it happen.

In all, the Lakers made 19 for 25 shots from the floor in the period--and rebounded two of their misses for baskets. They committed one turnover. They scored on 19 of their first 21 possessions and 18 of 22 overall. Another play-by-play sheet to frame and put up on the wall.

Scott finished 27 with points and Johnson 26.

“I couldn’t get enough,” Riley said. “I was hoping to get as much as we could.

The Rockets could only respond with Akeem Olajuwon, who had a 20-point, 20-rebound game.

“We kept ‘em (the Rockets) between the foul lines. They were taking early (and distant) shots and missing. We were getting it and taking it down.

“This is a team you’ve got to get on quick. You don’t want to come out and spar with ‘em, let ‘em get it in to Akeem. . . . I don’t think we want to get in a real half-court game with them, with all the rebounding they’ve got. We wanted to string it out.

“We did some things to invite them to shoot the ball, rather than milking it, getting it into Akeem. . . . That (jump shots) is not the strength of their starting lineup.”

Or look at it another way:

“Every time we play these guys,” said the Rockets’ Robert Reid, “it takes the first five minutes before we realize we’re playing the world champions.

“You’re supposed to be higher than a kite. I don’t care if you’re playing in Saskatchewan, Canada. They have to say, ‘Hey, we’re in for a dogfight.

“It’s not that we’re too cool. It’s like we’re saying, ‘Let’s not be too tight.’ We just don’t have that look you want, where the other guys say, ‘Look at the way those guys look.’

“Some of us came with game faces. Some of us didn’t. If we don’t start, it’s going to be a nice regular season and a short post-season.”

For what it’s worth, the Rockets pursued long and hard after the first period, cutting the deficit to 11 points at halftime and eight early in the third period.

It wasn’t worth anything, it turned out. In one do-it-all sequence, with his team 11 down, Houston’s Purvis Short, the amazing high-arcing baseline jump-shooter, missed a fast-break layup, got the ball back, was called for traveling and drew a technical foul. At the other end, Scott made a free throw, and on the ensuing Laker possession, Worthy knocked in a 16-footer.

The Rockets went 11 minutes in the late third and early fourth quarters with four field goals. The Lakers’ lead grew back to 19 points before the Texans fled for the freeways and the reserves reported in.

So another challenger’s dream died, or was deferred for the moment. The champions rolled on.

“Fitch said this game was a message game,” someone suggested to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

“Messages won’t really be received until the season’s over,” Abdul-Jabbar said.

But a calling card or two might get left.

Laker Notes

The Lakers have won 29 of 32, 5 in a row, 7 straight in this series and 6 straight on the road. Their road record is 18-6. . . . Michael Cooper’s injury was described as a “grade-two sprain” by trainer Gary Vitti. If it doesn’t look this morning as if he’ll be able to play tonight in Atlanta, he’ll be sent home. . . . Cooper, before leaving for the hospital: “I went up for a rebound. I think I came down on somebody’s foot. At the same time, I think someone stepped on it. It felt like a double sprain, inside and outside. . . . At the time, I thought I broke it. That was the most excruciating pain I’ve felt in a long time. . . . It was like what happened in the Celtics’ game--the lights went out. The next thing I knew, people were talking to me. Ray (Tolbert) and Mike (Smrek) were carrying me off the floor.” . . . Laker shooting in the first period: James Worthy was 3 for 3, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 2 for 2, Byron Scott 6 for 7, A.C. Green 4 for 6 and Magic Johnson 4 for 7. . . . Worthy made his first seven shots, didn’t miss until late in the third period, finished 8 for 10.