In Game 1, Lakers Make Dallas Seem Set for a Vacation

If Monday night was any indication, the Dallas Mavericks may want to revise their wish list.

“They’ve always said they wanted to play us in a series like this,” Byron Scott said after the Lakers spoiled Dallas’ debut in the NBA Western Conference finals by coasting to a 113-98 victory at the Forum.

“They wanted us, they’ve got us,” Scott said. “Now let’s see what they can do with us.”

Early returns suggest, not much. The Mavericks, who expressed some doubt about their ability to beat the Lakers after losing 4 of 5 in the regular season, did little Monday to indicate that they were selling themselves short. Of course, the same could be said about Utah after the Lakers’ 19-point romp in Game 1 of the semifinals, and look at all the noise the Jazz made before finally succumbing in seven.

“We can’t afford to be inconsistent in a seven-game series like we were with Utah,” said James Worthy, who took his former North Carolina teammate, Sam Perkins, to school by scoring 28 points, 20 more than the Mavericks’ Tar Heel.

“We learned a lot in the Utah series,” Worthy said. “We won’t do what we did against them.”

If the Mavericks learned anything at all Monday, it was that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar loses 10 years off his life when no longer encumbered by a 7-foot 4-inch deadweight such as Utah’s Mark Eaton. Abdul-Jabbar, who had shot a retirement-inducing 38.9% in the Jazz series, made 6 of his first 7 shots.

What effect did that have on the Dallas defense?

“When they see that,” Laker guard Michael Cooper said, “they must know it’s going to be a long night.”

Actually, the Lakers threatened to make short work of the Mavericks, opening a 41-32 lead when Cooper hit the first of four three-pointers the Lakers would make in the game (two each for Cooper and Scott).

That’s when Laker Coach Pat Riley sent in Tony Campbell for Scott, and the Lakers proceeded to miss their next 10 shots to fuel a 15-1 Dallas run, which made for a three-point game at halftime, 52-49.

Laker generosity stopped after the break, however. The Lakers shot 68.4% in the third quarter, with Scott, A.C. Green and Worthy each scoring eight points, to build an 11-point lead, 80-69.

That advantage grew to 17 points, 96-79, as the Mavericks could counterpunch only with Roy Tarpley, who had 18 points and 20 rebounds.

Derek Harper, who scored 10 points in the first quarter, went the next 34 minutes with just one basket. Mark Aguirre scored 18 points, 8 under his season average. Rolando Blackman also scored 18.

“I thought we made an extraordinary defensive effort,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “We wanted to disrupt their offensive motion. Even though we lost the battle of the boards, we forced them to take a lot of shots they didn’t want to take.”

The Mavericks, who turned the ball over five times in the third quarter, admitted that they offered little more than token resistance in the period.

“I think our offense really staggered in the second half,” Aguirre said, “and the Lakers didn’t have to move on defense. If they don’t have to move, they help out and double all over the floor.

“We didn’t move or run like we did earlier. When you let the Lakers get dunks and fast breaks, it really gets them going.”

The Lakers already may have come in primed against Dallas, especially Scott, who burned the Mavericks for an average of 29 points a game during the regular season on 62.5% shooting. Scott wasn’t too happy in March before a game in Dallas when someone handed him a magazine cover story proclaiming Harper and Blackman as the best backcourt in the league. Instead of reading it, Scott said he stepped on it.

“I still have the magazine at home,” Scott said with a semi-snarl.

He didn’t say, but it’s quite possible that instead of keeping it in his magazine rack, Scott has been using it as a doormat.

“That’s a particular challenge to Magic, Coop and myself,” Scott said after scoring 23 points, handing out 7 assists and making 4 steals. “We thrive on challenges every day, and this gives us a much bigger one, to outplay their guards.

“They’ve been saying for the last two or three years (that they want) to see if they had the better team, to see if they’ve arrived as one of the elite teams in the league.”

Magic Johnson, who had 19 points, 12 assists and 6 rebounds, said he figured that even before the season started, the Lakers and Mavericks would fight it out in the West.

“I kind of knew from the beginning this is what was going to happen,” Johnson said. “Every year, it was supposed to be us and them, and now here it is.

“I read a lot of quotes that they wanted us. Here we are.”

For one night, anyway, the Mavericks got more than they could ever have wanted.