Lakers Have Their Own Agenda in Dallas : While James Worthy Rests, They Turn Back the Mavericks, 114-107

There were any number of ways the Lakers could have rubbed it in worse than they did in Wednesday night’s 114-107 win over the Dallas Mavericks.

Magic Johnson could have played with a hand tied behind his back. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar could have worn a blindfold instead of goggles, Byron Scott cement shoes instead of sneakers. Wanda Cooper could have shown up instead of Michael.

The Lakers, however, weren’t intent on being crass. They just wanted to give James Worthy a night off. It wasn’t their idea that the Mavericks--for whom this game supposedly had far greater significance--would take one off, too.

If anything, the Mavericks seemed more affected by Worthy’s absence than the Lakers, who rolled to their 60th win of the season behind a club record-tying 23 assists by Magic Johnson, 31 points by Scott, a combined 20 rebounds from Abdul-Jabbar and Mychal Thompson, and some defensive aggravation from Kurt Rambis, who made as many baskets (5) as the All-Star forward he was guarding, Mark Aguirre.

“They may have put a little too much pressure on themselves,” said Rambis, referring to Dallas’ desire to overtake Denver for the second-best record in the Western Conference. “They either played tight tonight, or tired.”

Either way, Dallas’ loss left the Nuggets within one win or one Maverick loss of taking the runner-up spot behind the Lakers, and that had at least one unexpected consequence for Laker Coach Pat Riley.

“I’m probably being toasted tonight by a man who has never toasted me before--Doug Moe,” said Riley with a smile, referring to the Nugget coach, who would sooner tweak Riley than praise him.

But if Moe was lifting a glass to Riley, the boos heard in Reunion Arena could have shattered it. The Mavericks got down, 9-0, before Chick Hearn had taken his first breath. They went 7 1/2 minutes before grabbing their first rebound of the second quarter. The Lakers would have run them into Oklahoma--it was 88-71 with 1:59 left in the third quarter--if Roy Tarpley, who had 24 points, all in the second half, hadn’t checked in with both guns blazing.

Aguirre made just 5 of 16 shots and was on the bench when the Mavericks staged a 16-6 run to get back into it. Derek Harper scored Dallas’ first 10 points but finished with 20 on 7-of-17 shooting, including 3 of 8 from three-point range. Rolando Blackman made just 7 of 19 shots, while once again being shown up by Scott, who was 13 of 19 Wednesday and averaged 29.4 points and 62.5% shooting in five games against the Mavericks this season.

And Johnson--who had as many assists as Dallas had as a team--made a mockery of the Mavericks’ efforts to double-team him, spotting Scott and Cooper (14 points, including two three-pointers, while starting in Worthy’s place) for open jumpers.

“It’s a tough situation,” Tarpley said of the Mavericks’ futile chasing of Magic. “Those are NBA players. You know they’re open, and you expect them to make half their shots, especially guys like Cooper and Byron Scott, who has been scoring at will all year.”

Scott hasn’t burned anyone worse than he has the Mavericks. And he still hasn’t forgotten the magazine story that proclaimed Harper and Blackman as the best backcourt in the NBA.

“I’m waiting for them to rewrite that, myself,” said Scott, whose 10 first-quarter points and two steals in the first three minutes got the Lakers rolling.

Scott also suspected that the Mavericks might have been lulled by the absence of Worthy, who had tendinitis in his left knee. He took part in pregame warmups but didn’t play after scoring 28 points the night before in San Antonio.

“As soon as they announced it (that Worthy wasn’t going to play), the crowd went crazy,” Scott said. “With James out, they might have thought they were going to take advantage of us, but we came out stronger.

“The big thing was we hit the boards. Kareem (9 rebounds), Mychal Thompson (11 rebounds and 18 points) and A.C. Green (5 rebounds) were cleaning up everything, and we just got out and ran.”

Magic, meanwhile, was busy passing--13 assists in the first half, his first 20-plus game of the season, and his biggest regular-season assist total since Feb. 21, 1984, when he had 23 against Seattle, tying the Laker record set by Jerry West in 1967. Magic had 24 in the playoffs once, against Phoenix on May 15, 1984.

He only took seven shots, making one, but he also had the game’s biggest defensive play down the stretch, slapping the ball out of Tarpley’s hands as the Maverick 7-footer was primed to go up with a rebound with the score 110-105 and a minute left.

“I was hoping they would call a foul but they didn’t,” Tarpley said. “That was a real big play. I shouldn’t have held the ball down that far. I was trying to pump fake, get everybody up in the air, then go back up and maybe get a three-point play.”

Instead, the Lakers were assured of win No. 60, becoming the first team ever to win 60 or more in four straight seasons.

“I think (the Mavericks) thought they were going to catch us without James and we wouldn’t respond,” Johnson said. “They forgot that we’re trying to build our thing, too.”