Weiss Doesn’t Expect to Sneak Up on Lakers With His Spurs

Coach Bob Weiss has no illusions about what probably awaits the San Antonio Spurs when they play the Lakers in Game 1 of their Western Conference opening-round series tonight at the Forum.

“(The Lakers) are very good at not taking anyone lightly,” Weiss said Thursday before leaving San Antonio. “Psychologically, they want to beat you as badly as possible. They want you to quit. If they can beat you by 50, they will.”

The last time the Lakers met the Spurs in the opening round, in 1987, they didn’t win by 50, but they came close. The Lakers won three straight by an average of 31.7 points, the biggest margin in playoff history.

“It’s not going to be that way this time,” Laker Coach Pat Riley insisted. “This (Spurs) team is a lot better. They’re going to score a lot of points.”

That they did during the regular season against the Lakers, an average of 125.4 a game. But the Lakers scored a bundle more, averaging 135.8 while sweeping the season series from San Antonio, 5-0. James Worthy was the leading scorer against the Spurs, averaging 26 points a game, with Byron Scott and Magic Johnson both checking in at more than 21.

Alvin Robertson averaged 24.8 points for the Spurs and had a 40-point night in the teams’ final meeting, a 133-126 Laker win in San Antonio. The Spurs are at their biggest disadvantage in the front court, where they don’t start anyone bigger than 6-10 Frank Brickowski and a rookie, Greg (Cadillac) Anderson, will be thrown in at center against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Weiss actually toyed with the idea of starting a 7-footer, Laker castoff Petur Gudmundsson, but Gudmundsson came up with a sore back in practice. The Spurs will start Brickowski and Mike Mitchell at forward, Anderson in the pivot, and Robertson and Jon Sundvold in the backcourt. Johnny Dawkins, who was the team’s starting off-guard, returned to practice after breaking his right--non-shooting--hand, but it’s doubtful that he’ll be able to contribute much.

Riley said he will continue to start Kurt Rambis over A.C. Green at power forward, ostensibly because Rambis has been more productive as a starter than coming off the bench. It may have as much to do, however, with Green’s not having recovered from a lower back problem.

Game 2 is scheduled for Sunday night at the Forum, with Game 3 in San Antonio Tuesday. A fourth game, if necessary, will be played in San Antonio Thursday, but the Lakers are 12-0 in first-round games since the NBA expanded the playoffs to 16 teams in 1984.