THE NBA PLAYOFFS : Pat Riley Junks His Salt Lake Fight Talk

As sympathetic as Pat Riley may be to the striking Hollywood writers who have been walking the picket lines for the last two months, he’s not looking to hire anybody to pen his speech to the Lakers before Game 6 of the National Basketball Assn.’s Western Conference finals here tonight against the Dallas Mavericks.

For one thing, the Laker coach writes his own material. For another, he’s decided to pull an old speech out of the can--the one he gave the team in Utah before Game 6 of the semifinals.

Riley said Wednesday afternoon: “When I finish, I’m going to say, ‘Do any of you remember this?’

“They’ll all say, ‘No-o-o-o-o.’

“I’ll say, ‘Good. Pay no attention to it. Totally disregard it.’ ”

For such inspiring oratory, corporate types are paying Riley in the neighborhood of $10,000 a pop to motivate their pencil-pushers? You’ve got to be kidding.

And wouldn’t you know it, Riley was. The last thing he wants is for the Lakers to respond here tonight the way they did in Salt Lake City, when the Jazz made a seventh game a foregone conclusion in the first quarter with a 26-2 run en route to a 108-80 win.

Considering the way the Lakers played here last weekend in two lopsided losses, it’s not inconceivable that the Mavericks could do a similar number, especially with a Reunion Arena “Shout Party” providing some 125-decibel inspiration of its own.

Riley doesn’t see that happening, however. Circumstances are different, he said, none more so than this:

“What the game meant in Utah was relief--we had gotten a reprieve from elimination with a miracle in Game 5,” Riley said, referring to Michael Cooper’s game-winning shot in a 111-109 win over the Jazz at the Forum. “It was a cushion game--we knew we had a seventh game to win the series.

“But this is more than a cushion game. This is the game that can push us to the level we’ve been working for all year. This game means getting to the finals--and you don’t take any chances with that.”

Riley, who gave the team the day off Wednesday and took a poolside nap himself, said he has seldom been calmer before a game than he was before Game 5 Tuesday. The Lakers, of course, did nothing to upset his equilibrium, running away to a 119-102 win that gave them a 3-2 lead in the series.

“In any big game, this team plays ,” Riley said. “Our best games have been 1, 5 and 7, because they mean something. One, because it gets you out of the blocks, 5 because it’s the turn game, and 7, obviously, because it’s the ultimate game.

“The only thing that excited me Tuesday was the take-down,” Riley said, referring to the forearm body slam Dallas forward Sam Perkins put on Laker guard Byron Scott in the first quarter.

“But they were ready. As a coach, you just relinquish it to them. You don’t coach this game. You don’t have to stuff a poker in them. They played.”

Sure enough, there was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, not only blocking shots, but shocking nearly everybody by being the front man on the fast break. There was Magic Johnson, setting a torrid tempo, A.C. Green getting the jump--and the rebounds--on Roy Tarpley, James Worthy flying down the wing for a rare--for him--two-handed jam, Cooper and Scott shutting down Dallas guards Derek Harper and Rolando Blackman.

Worthy has been the Lakers’ leading scorer in this series--he’s averaging just a shade under 22 points a game--but he had two quiet games in Dallas, shooting just 45.7% in Reunion Arena, compared to 68% in the Forum. Worthy, who was unstoppable in the Western finals last spring against Seattle, averaging more than 30 points a game, has been unpredictable this spring, due in part to the chronic tendinitis in his knees.

How to know when Worthy will be on?

Riley shrugged. “Before a game, I’ll say to (assistant Bill) Bertka, ‘What do you think?’ He’ll say, ‘What do you think?’ I’ll go, ‘I got a good feeling.’ He’ll say, ‘I don’t know.’

“When James is pushed in a corner, when he knows he’s not playing well and the team needs him, he becomes sharper and more focused and more defined.”

Not to mention dangerous.

“I’ve got a good feeling about this team,” Riley said. “This team . . . I hate to say this because it might cause some long evenings for me, but I think this team plays its best when it’s most scared.”

That’s what happened against Utah, he said, when the Lakers suddenly found themselves down 2-1 and needing to win Game 4 in the Salt Palace. And that’s what happened in Game 5 against the Mavericks Tuesday night.

And tonight?

“We’ll be ready to play, that’s all I can say,” Cooper said. “We have to come out and establish the type tempo game we play, and be intensified. If we do that, we will be fine.”

If they do that, they’ll have a date with either Boston or Detroit.

Laker Notes

For the record: An observation in Wednesday’s editions that after beating the Mavericks in the playoffs in 1984 and ‘86, the Lakers went on to lose in the championship finals was only half right. They did that in ‘84, losing to the Boston Celtics in the NBA finals. But in 1986, the Lakers didn’t make the championship finals, losing in five games to the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference finals.