THE NBA PLAYOFFS : It’s Home, Smoggy Home Now : Like Elusive Rebounds, Laker-Dallas Series Still Up in the Air

Even if it may cause them to gag, the Lakers can take a deep breath again. They’re back home, and if you don’t know what that means, Mychal Thompson is only too happy to tell you.

“We’re a lot more comfortable,” Thompson said, “breathing air that we can see.”

The atmospheric conditions in Dallas last weekend were clearly unfavorable to the Lakers, who were fogged in twice by the Mavericks and now find themselves needing a win tonight in Game 5 at the Forum to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference finals.

History would suggest that like other smog-sensitive visitors, the Mavericks suffer a severe case of constricted throat when they come here: They’ve played eight playoff games in the Forum in their history and have lost them all.

That includes losses of 15 and 22 points last week, and two previous Game 5 meetings in the Western semifinals: in 1984, when the Lakers closed out the series, 4 games to 1, with a 115-99 win, and in 1985, when the Lakers took a 3-2 series lead with a 116-113 win, then eliminated the Mavericks back in Dallas, 120-107.

But Dallas guard Derek Harper, who last week looked like a guy who had missed the on-ramp here to the playoffs, vowed that the Mavericks won’t need any maps to the movie stars’ homes upon their return.

“You’re going to see a different Mavericks team than the one you saw in the first two games in L.A.,” said Harper, who put the branding iron to the Lakers with 35 points in Sunday’s 118-104 Dallas win in Game 4.

Whatever inferiority complex the Mavericks were carrying in their luggage last week isn’t likely to make the trip this time, at least not in any bags carrying Roy Tarpley’s name tags.

That’s the same Tarpley whose name headlines this series’ marquee after his 21-point, 20-rebound performance in Game 3 Friday, followed by a 16-point, 13-rebound encore in Game 4 Sunday. The same Tarpley who traded elbows and insults with Laker guard Michael Cooper, then screamed triumphantly at the Laker huddle during a timeout in the closing moments of Game 4.

The same Tarpley who, as he was jogging off the court Sunday, shouted to the fans above the players’ tunnel: “It’s all over now.”

Now, does that sound like a 7-footer who plans to become a shrinking violet just because he’s in Jerry Buss’ garden?

“Yeah, I said that, but realistically, it’s not over,” Tarpley said in the Maverick dressing room after being given time to review his arithmetic.

“It’s nowhere near over. But we just have to go back there with the same kind of effort we made in the past two games.”

The Lakers, meanwhile, have to figure out where they misplaced that Magic formula known as Winnin’ Time, a fourth-quarter elixir that was nowhere to be found last weekend, when the Mavericks flashed the strong finishing kick while the Lakers were left kicking themselves.

“Usually when it’s crunch time,” Cooper said, “we come to the forefront. We didn’t here. We were drier than the Mojave Desert.”

It would help, of course, if the Lakers would mix an occasional rebound into their fast-break diet. In the last two games, the Lakers have been outrebounded by a ridiculous 39-10 margin in the fourth quarter, and it doesn’t take Tom Heinsohn to figure out there’s a direct correlation between that statistic and the 60-39 margin by which Dallas has outscored the Lakers in the last two closing quarters.

“We weren’t coming up with big plays,” Cooper said, “which in this series is as simple as boxing out.”

A.C. Green tried Sunday: He came out strong early and wound up with a dozen rebounds to lead the team. But Green was on the bench for much of the fourth quarter, and Tarpley was given carte blanche to turn the Lakers into pigeon under glass.

Laker Coach Pat Riley said he needed Cooper as a perimeter shooter down the stretch because of the defensive job the Mavericks were doing on Byron Scott, who had a total of 21 points in the two Dallas games after averaging 26.5 points in the first two games.

“They’re playing almost a box-and-one on Byron and taking him out of the game,” Riley said. “Rolando (Blackman) is doing a great job, chasing and trailing him through every pick.

“Byron should be flattered that they’re paying more attention to him than anyone else, but we’ve got to find a way to shake him loose.”

At the same time, the Lakers learned they can’t play so fast and loose with the Mavericks’ mad bombers, Harper and Mark Aguirre, who combined to bury five three-pointers Sunday.

“We got caught in no-man’s land,” Cooper said, “between doubling down low on their post guys and getting out to the shooters.”

So far, no man has an answer for Tarpley who, incidentally, had as many rebounds in Dallas (33) as he did in the first two games in Los Angeles. His young legs, enthusiasm and talent are as frightening in their own way as Mark Eaton’s size was in the Utah series.

The Lakers aren’t looking to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who is 18 years Tarpley’s senior, to provide the solution. Abdul-Jabbar hasn’t had a single rebound in the second half of either of the last two games. Thompson has to step up, however, according to Riley.

“Mychal has to have a monster rebounding game--16 or 17 rebounds,” said Riley, conveniently overlooking the fact that Thompson has never grabbed more than 13 rebounds as a Laker.

Better a monster rebounder, however, than monsters in Jerry West’s sleep.

“No reason to be discouraged,” Thompson said. “We’ve been here before.”

In other words, no need to hold your breath.

But then again, as Aguirre said in an inspired moment after Sunday’s game: “I don’t think God made anyone invincible. If the Lakers are going to win this series, they’re going to have to play better than us.”