Lakers Enforce Their Will on Isiah, Enforcers

There are things the Lakers would have liked to come home to after their rally from 17 points down in Atlanta with their six-game winning streak, their 30-3 record since Dec. 11, etc. How about a pat on the back? The weekend off? A trip to Tahiti?

Instead, they got the Detroit Pistons, basketball’s answer to a herd of stampeding rhinos. The Pistons are more into patting jaws or sternums than backs.

Instead, they faced a magic performance from Isiah Thomas, 42 points and 10 assists worth.

Instead, they found themselves 16 points down again.

So what’s a would-be dynasty to do? The Lakers roused themselves at halftime, redoubled their health insurance, took the lead back within 6:40 of the third period, then edged the Pistons at the wire, winning 117-110 to close out their week of testing the Boston Celtics, Houston Rockets, Hawks, Pistons (and Clippers), 5-0.

Overall, the Lakers are 42-9, winners of seven in a row and 31 of 34. At this point, who would dare fool with them?

Well, the Pistons, for one.

“You can’t let ‘em come into your backyard and give you a backhand,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “That’s what Detroit did to us--gave us a backhand.

“And we were taking it.”

Sometimes with better grace than at others. There was one first-half dispute between Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Laimbeer, the home-grown heavy from Palos Verdes High who had eight high school friends in on complimentary tickets and was jeered loudly from warmups to sunset by most of the other 17,497 in the Forum.

Abdul-Jabbar made a hook while a foul was called on Laimbeer. Abdul-Jabbar pointed at Laimbeer, yelled at him and strode purposefully up to him to make a further point before referee Jess Kersey intercepted him.

“He came across the lane for the hook,” Laimbeer said. “You know how he ducks his head? I’m pretty good at reaching down and slapping the ball away. He got his head in the way.

“What did he say? ‘Don’t hit me in the head.’ I just told him, ‘Get out of my face and keep on playing.’ ”

So they did. The Pistons rolled up their 16-point lead and led at halftime, 67-55. Thomas, having made eight shots in a row, many of them freshly invented, had 22 points and 8 assists by then.

There is a theory currently being pushed around the league in the wake of Thomas’ joke/comment about Larry Bird in last season’s playoffs, that Isiah is the game’s most overrated superstar. Indeed, he came in shooting 43.5%, his lowest since he was a rookie, and averaging only 18 points, but anyone who saw him Sunday knows how great a player he is. Forget his penchant for the occasional bad shot and unwise decision--OK, for lots of them--and what you’ve got is inch-for-inch basketball’s most dominating player, a 6-foot 1-inch guard capable of taking a game over.

Which he was doing.

“You got to give him credit,” said his friend, Magic Johnson. “He took that team, put ‘em on his shoulders and said, ‘We’re not goin’ to lose today.’

“He almost got it, too.”

Early in the second half, though, Thomas charged for his third foul and sat down, with the Pistons still ahead 69-60. His teammates started missing and the Lakers started running fast breaks, one faster than another until the Detroit lead was all gone. The Forum was rocking. The Lakers looked as if they might win by 20.

And Thomas re-entered the game and turned it back around. He hit a 20-footer from the top of the key. He hit a 22-footer. The Pistons survived to fight it out down the stretch.

It was some long stretch, too.

The game was tied at 93, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 105, 107 and 109. In other words, no more than a basket separated the teams for 10:20 of the 12 minutes of the fourth quarter. In one burst, Thomas had 10 of the 12 Piston points--two free throws, an 18-footer after racing into the right corner and firing over Byron Scott, a 21-footer from the top of the key, a 20-footer.

The Pistons took a 110-109 lead with 51 seconds left when Dennis Rodman made one of two free throws.

At the other end, the Lakers cleared a side for Magic Johnson. John Salley, guarding Mychal Thompson, slid over to double-team. Thompson slid down the lane, Johnson hit him, Thompson hit a layup, was fouled and made the free throw. The Lakers led, 112-110.

The Pistons ran a pick-and-roll, Thomas working off Laimbeer. Big surprise. Thomas sliced left on Wes Matthews and into the lane. Another big surprise. The first man to challenge Thomas might as well be blindfolded.

Waiting in the lane, however, were Thompson and Abdul-Jabbar. Johnson rushed over. If you are counting, this makes three Lakers in front, and one behind, and one watching the other four Pistons.

Thomas leaped into the air, looking as if he was trying to shoot. He said he was trying to pass, but there wasn’t room for one of those, either. Abdul-Jabbar knocked the ball down. It went to Matthews, who was fouled and made both free throws, making it 114-110 with 30 seconds left, all over except for the post-mortems.

“Frankly, he (Thomas) took on too many big guys,” Piston Coach Chuck Daly said. “At that point, you’ve got to move the ball.

“But that was a very successful play all day. Live by the sword, you’re gonna die by the sword.”

Show up in the Forum these days and you stand a pretty good chance of dying, period, one way or another, by the sword, the Magic, the Byron, the Kareem, etc. Sunday, it was even death by Wes Matthews.

Today, Riley called off practice. His dynasts were thankful, once more.

Laker Notes

Last add Raiders: Piston publicist Matt Doubek said Chuck Daly invited Al Davis, who had sent the bad-boy Pistons Raider sweaters, to give the halftime talk. Davis, understandably, declined. . . . Michael Cooper was placed on the injured list, which means he must miss four more games. Pat Riley says Billy Thompson, who has been out all season after arthroscopic knee surgery, will be activated today. Too late to make the rotation for the playoffs? “I’m happy with the eight guys I’m playing but there’s a possibility,” Riley said. . . . Mychal Thompson, back from death’s door, by his account, anyway, went 34 minutes, scored 11 points with 8 rebounds. Thompson had missed the last two games with intestinal flu. “I was a step away from death,” he said before the game, laughing. . . . Wes Matthews contribution was a spectacular 14 points, shooting 5 for 7, in 16 minutes, including a three-pointer that almost broke the game open at the end of the third period, followed as it was by A.C. Green’s steal of the in-bounds pass and successful 20-footer. Before shooting that one, Matthews had tried seven three-pointers all season, making two. How did he dare? “They were dropping off me all game,” Matthews said. “They were dropping off into James (Worthy’s) lap. I could hear Earvin (Johnson) on the bench saying, ‘Shoot the three! Shoot the three!’ I looked down and there was the line. It was a big shot, one of the biggest of my career.”