With Tarp Under Nets, Mavericks Are Tough

The Lakers could teach Hollywood a thing or two about image-making. Once upon a time, Utah’s Mark Eaton was a journeyman 7-footer, while Dallas’ Roy Tarpley was a promising newcomer fighting to overcome a drug problem.

Now, after some playoff exposure against the Lakers? Well, Rome may not have been built in a day, but reputations are being made overnight.

“Supermen,” Coach Pat Riley said with only a trace of irony Saturday in Reunion Arena, where the Lakers gathered both to practice and to ponder how they intend to handle Tarpley this afternoon in Game 4 of the Western Conference final, in light of his 21-point, 20-rebound performance in the Mavericks’ 106-94 win in Game 3 Friday night.

“The Lakers sometimes do that,” Magic Johnson said of Tarpley’s quantum leap in status in this series, which the Lakers lead, 2 games to 1.

Tarpley, to be sure, came into the playoffs with an impressive portfolio. He was voted the National Basketball Assn.’s best sixth man by coming off the bench to average 13.5 points a game and 11.8 rebounds in just 28.5 minutes of playing time. He was the league’s seventh-leading rebounder, the first reserve ever to finish in the top 10 in that category.

If anybody sorely needed a boost in prestige, it was Tarpley’s Maverick teammates, who were being measured for permanent positions in the Dallas Kennel Club after two blowout losses in Los Angeles.

“We were being called dogs and wimps,” said Rick Sund, the Mavericks’ vice president of basketball operations.

“We were just roasted. There were inferences to our lack of backbone and lack of character. Well, we have good people.”

Let someone else judge whether the Mavericks are model citizens. The Lakers can attest to their prowess as rebounders after Game 3, in which Dallas outbanged them on the boards, 52-33, the key to the Mavericks’ most one-sided win in 14 playoff meetings against the Lakers.

“We led the league in rebounding,” Sund said. “A lot of that was Tarpley, but there was a lot of Sam Perkins and James Donaldson, too.

“Perkins, Tarpley and Donaldson averaged more rebounds than any three players on another team, including Boston, with (Larry) Bird, (Robert) Parish and (Kevin) McHale.

“Along with our rebounding, our defense also improved by more than four points a game. Those are areas of toughness people don’t recognize.”

While neither Kareem Abdul-Jabbar nor Mychal Thompson was able to grab so much as a single rebound in the second half Friday, Tarpley outrebounded the Laker team by himself in the fourth quarter, 8 to 5. And if it wasn’t Tarpley, it was teammates Perkins (11 rebounds, 7 offensive) and Aguirre, who had 23 points and 10 rebounds, despite a bruised right heel that kept him from practicing Saturday.

Even Donaldson, who suffered a bloody nose in the game’s first minute and played just 18 minutes, had one more rebound (5) than Abdul-Jabbar had in 31 minutes.

“It was contagious, what happened,” said Johnson, whose eight rebounds led the Lakers. “All of them were collectively dominating us on the boards.

“When Roy got 20 in L.A. in Game 1, it didn’t mean much. But when he got 20 here, everybody else fell in behind.”

And where were the Lakers’ big men while the Dallas’ towers of power were latching onto every missed shot in sight?

“We were spectating, standing and waiting for the ball to come to us,” Riley said. “The films were a nightmare from that standpoint. They (the Laker players) saw it.”

The Mavericks, who are making their first appearance in the conference finals, had been the ones playing tourist, according to Sund.

“It was like we finally got to the finals, and we breathed a sigh of relief,” Sund said. “You can’t do that. You’ve got to go to the hilt like Detroit and Boston, but the difference is they’ve both been there. We never have, and I think that may be part of the problem.

“It looked like we approached the first two games like a game in December or January, while the Lakers--after surviving the Utah scare--played like they were in the finals.”

Now that the Mavericks have their calendars straight, you can see the difference, Sund said.

“Let’s face it,” he said, “the Lakers are better than the Mavericks at every position, except Tarpley coming off the bench. Magic is better than Derek (Harper), (James) Worthy is better than Mark (Aguirre), (Byron) Scott is better than Ro (Blackman).

“For us to win, we have to overachieve. We have to get a war-like effort.”

In order to achieve peace now--and a 3-1 series lead--the Lakers will have to adopt a stricter policy of containment, and not allow the Mavericks to score 25 points on second shots, as they did Friday. That can undo the most determined defense, which is why the Lakers lost even though they forced Dallas into 45.2% shooting. The Mavericks attempted 15 more shots (93-78) than the Lakers, however.

“Our defense was excellent from free-throw line to free-throw line,” Riley said. “But from the free-throw line to the end of the court, we didn’t do anything. We didn’t finish our defense off.

“Their front line had 46 rebounds to our 18. Our front line can’t tolerate that. . . . We kept being pushed out under the basket. You have to make a stand somewhere near the dotted line (in the lane), with elbows.”

Magic Johnson, for one, said he doesn’t intend to stand for another game like Friday.

“I can’t sit here and be leading the team with eight rebounds, more than everybody else down low,” he said. “No question, one of our big men has to (set the tone). Somebody has to.”

Laker Notes

The Lakers have lost four games in the playoffs--three to Utah, one to Dallas--which is one more than they lost in 18 postseason games last season. In each of their losses, they have scored fewer than 100 points and shot under 50%. . . . Despite his bruised right heel, Dallas forward Mark Aguirre intends to play this afternoon. “He can be a time bomb,” Roy Tarpley said of Aguirre, who had his best game of the playoffs with 23 points, 10 rebounds and several notable hustle plays. . . . Game 5 is scheduled for Tuesday night in the Forum, where the Mavericks are 0-8 in the playoffs. . . . Dallas owner Donald Carter, relating a conversation he had with Maverick assistant coach Richie Adubato, a defensive specialist: “He was telling me how he was worried about his job. All I told him was, ‘Man, you ensured it tonight.’ ” Said Adubato: “I’m glad I got my insurance, but I’m already nervous about Sunday.”