Lakers Claim Home-Court Advantage on Road

Forget those calls to the TV repairmen. There was nothing wrong with your picture tube, after all. Just when you thought your reception was hopelessly blurred, the Lakers came back in focus, as sharp and vivid as they’ve looked since the February sweeps period (Boston, Houston, Atlanta, Detroit), when their ratings were at their apex.

And just in time, too. By beating the San Antonio Spurs, their probable opponent in the first round of the playoffs, 133-126 in the Hemisfair Arena, the Lakers clinched the home-court advantage for as long as they last in the postseason, which presumably means sometime in June.

They also ended a 5-game losing streak on the road, sweeping the season series from the Spurs, 5-0, and came within a game of their fourth straight 60-win season, something no other team has ever done.

“Five losses in a row on the road was ridiculous,” Mychal Thompson said. “This was a big game for us--the clinching spot was staring us in the face, like a pretty woman waiting for a date. We had to go after it.”

Beyond the result, though, was the fact that four starters played superbly on the same night, which lately has been as frequent an occurrence as Pat Riley showing up in a wrinkled shirt.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who ought to have his own series-- fortysomething --scored the game’s first basket, had 10 points in the first 6 minutes, 18 at the half, and finished with 25, his biggest output since Dec. 1, when he had 27 against Sacramento.

James Worthy, who has been looking--and limping--before leaping, reacted Tuesday as if miraculously cured by a TV evangelist, slashing and cutting and jumping to 28 points, 22 in the second half--including a run of 11 straight points near the top of the fourth quarter, after the Spurs had closed to within two.

Magic Johnson, whose new Hollywood agent probably never had to deal with a strained groin before, broke loose with his best shooting exhibition in weeks, making 9 of 11 shots, including two three-pointers, en route to 24 points.

And Byron Scott, the only Laker who has shown up every night with the regularity of the evening news, had 25 points, missing just 3 of 12 shots.

“Maybe,” Riley mused, “all of them were holding back.”

Just kidding, Riley quickly added.

“I don’t know what’s going on in their minds,” Riley said. “Guys were legitimately hurting. But all of a sudden, they can sense the end of the season, and the injuries are getting better, better all the time.”

And with better health came stronger minds, according to Magic, who was most impressed with the way the Lakers’ responded to the Spurs’ second-half challenge, in which guard Alvin Robertson (a season-high 40 points, and 10 assists) brought them back from a 13-point first-half deficit to an 83-81 lead with 5:21 left in the third quarter.

The Lakers scored on their next seven possessions and 9 of 11 to go into the fourth quarter with a 5-point lead, 101-96, and then watched Worthy go to work and score on:

--a driving layup on which Spurs rookie Greg Anderson was called for goaltending;

--an 18-foot jumper;

--a driving basket and foul shot;

--a spectacular fake right, drive left, lay it off the glass with his right hand past Walter Berry;

--a clear-out, one-on-one with Mike Mitchell where he took one dribble, then went straight up for a 10-foot jumper. The Laker lead was seven, 115-108, and it would soon grow to 10 when A. C. Green caught a deflected pass from Magic in mid-stride and threw it down for a jam that made it 118-108.

“We competed tonight,” Johnson said. “The champion in us came out tonight. When it got tough, you saw guys say, ‘OK, let’s go to work.’ James took over for a few minutes, Kareem had his time. It was like the old Lakers: Nobody was going to beat us.

“I was so happy to see that back. Even if we had lost, it was back. Kareem got mad, James got mad. The game was physical, we were getting thrown around, and everybody said, ‘The Lakers have to come out,’ and they came out.

“It felt so good: Everybody’s eyes were getting red. We were frustrated, and getting mad, but we started to play like we know we can play. And that’s just what we needed right now.”

And no one gave it more than Worthy, who had struggled through a 6-for-20 game against Houston on Sunday.

“The game really got hot in the second half,” Riley said. “But when San Antonio got hot, Worthy got even hotter.”

In the second half, Worthy said, the game took on semi-playoff intensity.

“In the middle of the third quarter, we knew it was going to be a dogfight,” he said. “We were frustrated. You could see it on our faces. Lately, when we’ve been frustrated, we’ve gone in the other direction faster. But tonight, it was back to the old way.

“I felt comfortable in the one-on-one situations. With Kareem and Magic on the bench, I wanted to create something. My confidence got going, and I really felt comfortable.”

Which left the Lakers with the luxury of the home-court advantage. San Antonio, meanwhile, needs one more win or a Phoenix loss to clinch the eighth spot in the Western Conference playoffs.

“I think that’s a great achievement, I really do,” Riley said of the Lakers being on the verge of the best regular-season record in the league. “To come back from a championship and do that, despite all that happened (the injuries).

“I think fans are going to be in for a real treat in the playoffs.”

That’s something Riley guaranteed, almost a year ago.

Laker Notes

The Lakers shot 62.1% (54 of 87), a season best. They made four three-pointers, including a rare one by James Worthy, who had been 1 of 14 from 3-point range. . . . Coach Pat Riley, who had said it was unlikely that he would play Worthy in back-to-back games on this trip, said he didn’t know if Worthy would play tonight in Dallas. “Moe wouldn’t like it,” Riley said, referring to Denver Coach Doug Moe, whose team is battling the Mavericks for the second-best record in the Western Conference. . . . Laker reserve Tony Campbell was named the most valuable player in the Continental Basketball Assn., where he had played with the Albany, N.Y., Patroons before signing with the Lakers last month. The vote was conducted by ESPN, which allowed viewers to cast votes by dialing a 900 number. “I didn’t call once,” said Campbell, who had made 10 of his previous 11 shots before cooling off in a 1 of 4 night Tuesday. Said Magic Johnson: “I would have called.”