Cooper Saves Lakers From All That Jazz

Down by a point with 12 seconds to go and the Laker season on the line, Michael Cooper checked back into the game Tuesday night with his own idea of a game face: He winked at Lawrence Tanter, the Forum public address announcer.

Five seconds later, Cooper swished a 17-foot set shot from the top of the key for his first game-winning shot in his ninth full season as a Laker, the sweetest note of the night for the Lakers in what very nearly became a Utah Jazz concert.

A couple of seconds later, James Worthy stole Marc Iavaroni’s inbounds pass, was fouled and made one of two free throws, and when Utah was unable to get off a final shot before time expired, the Lakers had a 111-109 win and a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven NBA Western Conference semifinal series against the Jazz. Game 6 is scheduled for Thursday night in Salt Lake City.

“In the last 40 seconds, I could see everybody’s heart pumping through their jerseys,” said Worthy, who normally reveals about as much emotion as a cardboard cutout. “This was a high-strung, emotional game. Everybody was in a cold sweat.”

Maybe so, but somehow Cooper--who had suffered through the worst shooting slump of his life this season, making a little more than 39% of his shots--seemed oblivious. That, to Laker owner Jerry Buss, was as astounding as the sight of Cooper taking the last shot.

“With seven seconds to go, to take a 20-foot shot with the series 2-2, down 1 point and you’ve got to go back to Utah--hey, it’s the season, right?” Buss said. “To be able to do that and not even touch iron? Unbelievable.”

To strain credulity even more, not only was this the first of the nearly 6,000 shots Cooper has taken in his career that has won a game, it was his first basket of the night. He’d attempted only three shots before inbounding the ball to Magic Johnson, whose primary options were to drive to the basket himself or pass off to Worthy, who led the Lakers with 27 points.

Instead, when four Jazz players converged on Johnson, the Laker guard flipped the ball back to Cooper, who was all alone just to the right of the key. Cooper didn’t miss a beat, sinking the shot that pulled the plug on the last of a half-dozen stirring comebacks by Utah, which had trailed, 90-80, with 10:25 to play but climbed back into it behind guard John Stockton, who tied Johnson’s National Basketball Assn. playoff record with 24 assists.

“They’re one of the grittiest teams I’ve ever seen as a Laker,” Cooper said. “Just never say die. They’ve never been in the playoffs (actually, they’ve never advanced past the second round), but they played like they didn’t know what it is to lose.

“They’re a helluva club. I’ve got a lot of respect for them.”

There were five lead changes in the last 2:40, with Utah going ahead for the last time, 109-108, with 12 seconds left on a baseline jumper by Thurl Bailey, who led the Jazz with 28 points. The Lakers had taken a 106-104 lead with two minutes to go after Bobby Hansen’s three-point attempt bounced off the rim three times before falling off and Byron Scott had scooped up the loose ball.

Scott, who had 24 points, was fouled by Stockton. Scott missed his first free throw but made the second.

But Stockton, who in addition to his two dozen assists had 23 points and 5 steals while playing 48 minutes, made two straight steals. First, he stripped an offensive rebound out of the hands of A.C. Green, setting up a pair of free throws by Karl Malone, who had 27 points and a game-high 16 rebounds for the Jazz.

Malone missed the first but made the second, making it 106-105. Moments later, Stockton slapped the ball away from a driving Johnson, then lofted his record-tying pass to Malone, who went in for a thunderous one-handed jam to give Utah the lead, 107-106, with 47 seconds to go.

Worthy responded with a short jumper over Bailey in the lane with 31 seconds to go, before Bailey answered in the last 12 seconds.

That’s when Cooper became the Lakers’ final solution. By that time, the big men for both teams--Utah’s 7-foot 4-inch Mark Eaton and the Lakers’ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar--had fouled out of the game. Eaton, who had 10 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocked shots, departed with 6:01 left when he threw an illegal hip check at Worthy while setting a pick. Abdul-Jabbar, who had drawn Johnson’s most demonstrative display of the night when he stood in and took a charge by Malone even though the Mailman knocked his goggles off--left with 3:06 to play after he fouled Iavaroni on a drive.

“Big, big, big,” Riley said, describing the win. “It could mean the season to us. The important thing now is to see how we capitalize on it. We still have to go to Utah, but now we know the worst that can happen is that we’ll go seven games.

“I don’t think any team has ever played as great a game against us at the Forum. They’re young. They’re hungry. They’re well-coached. They’re a lot like the Lakers.”

Riley said he didn’t substitute Cooper with the idea that he’d make the winning basket.

“I sent him in as a passer first,” Riley said. “We had no timeouts left and we had to get the ball inbounds. I had thought about keeping A.C. in for an offensive rebound, but there’s only one player on this team who inbounds the ball in such critical situations. That’s Cooper.”

Cooper said he hadn’t planned on doing much beside passing, either.

“I just wanted to get the ball in Magic’s hands and let him create,” Cooper said. “He started to drive, I had to move. I wanted to move to the right spot, and Magic got the ball to me. . . . I’m supposed to hit that shot.”

Now that he has made a game-winner, will there be others?

“I’ll take ‘em as they come,” Cooper said with a grin. “Hopefully in eight or nine years, I’ll get another.”

Laker Notes

Funeral services for Chick Hearn’s mother, Opal Paul, who died Sunday after a long illness, will be held today in Aurora, Ill. The Laker broadcaster planned to fly to Chicago for the funeral, then return to Salt Lake City for Game 6 Thursday night. . . . To express his displeasure that Laker Coach Pat Riley was not voted the league’s coach of the year, KTLA-TV sportscaster Keith Olbermann applied mousse to his hair during his broadcast Monday night and advised his viewers to do the same. “Stick up for Pat, slick up for Pat,” Olbermann said. “Kareem can’t do it, but you can.”