These Kings Are Game but Lakers Win It

Even with a full complement of players, the Sacramento Kings haven’t been able to beat the Lakers here since Pat Riley was still in short pants.

Sunday night, the Kings had more players injured (five) than were sitting on the bench, and a sixth player, top rookie Kenny Smith, departed in the first half with a broken finger on his left hand.

Shades of last season, when the Kings spotted the Lakers a 29-0 lead? Hardly. The Kings did fall behind, 8-0, but even with just eight healthy bodies--including a former sixth-round Clipper draft choice, Martin Nessley--they extended the Lakers to the final seconds before falling, 108-104.

The Kings, who were down 10 at the half and 16, 80-64, with 3:42 left in the third quarter, outscored the Lakers, 15-4, to pull within one, 105-104, on Michael Jackson’s three-point shot with 14 seconds left.

After James Worthy made two free throws, the Kings had a chance to tie, but Harold Pressley’s three-point bid from the corner was off, A.C. Green bagged the rebound, and converted one of his two free throw attempts to put this one away.

The Lakers, who suffered their worst loss of the season last weekend in Sacramento, 114-92, made it 35 straight against the Kings in the Forum. Their last loss here to the Kings was on Oct. 20, 1974, despite 30 points by then-player Riley.

Few teams, however, could plead poverty the way Sacramento Coach Jerry Reynolds could have Sunday night. He could have made a killing selling seats on the Kings bench, for all the company he had.

“I was telling (assistant coach) Phil Johnson, it’s got to go back when I was 15 or 16--I was an ornery rascal, I got into a lot of trouble--and now it’s coming back on me,” Reynolds said. “You have to pay for your deeds.

“I wasn’t a child molester or anything like that, but this is unbelievable.”

The Kings were trying to make do without Jawann Oldham (knee); LaSalle Thompson (knee); Derek Smith (broken bones around his left eye); Reggie Theus (torn calf muscle); and Mike McGee (strained shoulder).

Then Kenny Smith, who had burned the Lakers for 30 points and a dozen assists in Sacramento, jammed his ring finger into the chest of Tony Campbell, the newest Laker. He was taken to the hospital, where the fracture was discovered.

“This has been a nice test, I guess,” Reynolds said. “They say you learn a lot about yourself from adversity. If so, I should be one smart son of a gun.”

His intelligence quotient would have gone off the scale if Pressley’s hurried three-pointer from the right corner would have fallen. But Pressley, who made just 1 of 7 from long distance Sunday, knew this one wasn’t going to drop.

“I didn’t even get a good grip on it,” said Pressley, normally the team’s most accurate three-point shooter. “I didn’t know what the time was left on the clock.”

Pressley was sitting in front of his cubicle with an ice pack on his right wrist. He’d caught an elbow from Worthy.

“I didn’t hear anything, but I thought it was broken,” Pressley said. “I couldn’t close my hand. And when I did get it closed, I couldn’t open it. That’s not a good thing when you’re playing point guard.”

The Lakers, having lost three of their last four games, know a good thing when they see one, so they were content to escape with a win without Magic Johnson and Michael Cooper, even if it did mean a few tense moments at the end.

James Worthy had 24 points, Byron Scott 23, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 19 in 30 minutes. Abdul-Jabbar made 9 of 12 shots against Sacramento centers Joe Klein and Nessley, the same combination that the Clippers’ Benoit Benjamin worked over for 30 points the night before.

Scott also had 6 steals, while Wes Matthews had 14 points and 10 assists.

“The Laker mystique is down right now,” Riley said. “Guys you wouldn’t expect to take a shot at us are not only taking them, but ripping them.”

How do you coach a team when you have only eight players, the league minimum for a game?

“It simplifies the situation for you,” Reynolds said. “You just say, ‘Can you play anymore?’ When a guy grabs for his neck, you take him out.

“I ain’t got a clue, guys. I’m lucky to have a job, and I may not have it for long. But I don’t know if that is a punishment or not. It may be a punishment to have this job.

“I can always go back to the piano factory (in French Lick, Ind., his home). They pay $5.35 an hour, time and a half on weekends.”

While Sacramento bodies continued to drop, Laker guard Cooper--who has missed 20 of the last 22 games--held out hope that he may be able to return Tuesday against Seattle. Johnson, who has missed 9 of the last 11, is a candidate to come back perhaps by Friday against the Clippers.

The Kings, meanwhile, wonder when it’s all going to end. They can’t be faulted for lack of effort--Otis Thorpe had 21 points and 16 rebounds and the Kings outrebounded the Lakers, 48-36.

“It’s really weird,” said Kleine, whose desperation jumper from the corner with 1:15 to go brought the Kings to within four, 104-100. He could have cut the lead to two, but made just one of two free throws with 39 seconds left.

“What it is, I can’t figure out,” Kleine said. “When LaSalle got hurt, he just fell. Kenny broke his hand, he didn’t know until halftime. When Reggie got hurt, he wasn’t even moving. He was just standing there, and got kicked. Derek breaks the bones around his eye. Just one freak thing after another.”

There was some satisfaction in coming close, Kleine said. But not enough.

“All we wanted was a shot at the end, a shot to compete,” he said. “We got that, and we gave it our all. But at the end of the year, it’s just another NBA loss.”

Laker Notes

The Lakers and their wives will stage their fifth annual anti-drug rally at 11 a.m. today at the Forum. The event is closed to the public, but an estimated 8,500 children from Inglewood schools will attend. . . . This note from Laker publicist Josh Rosenfeld on the eve of the NCAA championship game: There were nine members of the Final Four All-Tournament teams present here Sunday: Jerry West, West Virginia (1959); Pat Riley, Kentucky (1966); Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, UCLA (1967); Magic Johnson, Michigan State (1979); Jeff Lamp, Virginia (1981); James Worthy, North Carolina (1982); Milt Wagner, Louisville (1983); Ed Pinckney, Villanova (1985); Billy Thompson, Louisville (1986).