THE NBA PLAYOFFS : Dallas Puts Up Roadblock and Heads for L.A. : Worthy Can’t Get Past Donaldson; Mavericks Win

Since the Lakers apparently like the hardcourt version so much, inviting first Utah and now Dallas to play, the home edition of Pat Riley’s Ultimate Game will soon be available at your neighborhood toy store, wedged between Trivial Pursuit and Pictionary.

As played by the Lakers, the rules of the game are simple. You can’t just win--that would be too easy. You have to take it to the limit, failing as often as you succeed, until you either win or go home for the summer.

Two weeks after staging their last Ultimate Game and dodging a Utah bullet, the Lakers are faced with another seventh-game showdown, this one against Dallas in the Western Conference finals.

The Mavericks booked themselves a return trip to the Forum for Game 7 Saturday when center James Donaldson denied James Worthy free passage to the basket in the closing seconds of a 105-103 Dallas win Thursday night in Reunion Arena that evened the series at three games apiece.

“It’s been hard,” said Magic Johnson, who was at the free-throw line with one second left and the Lakers down by three points. Johnson made the first shot, but his deliberate miss on the second attempt did not make contact with the rim, giving Dallas the ball and ensuring the Mavericks of their first taste of a seventh game.

“It seems like it’s been hard all year, hard in these playoffs,” said Johnson, who didn’t make it any easier on himself or the Lakers by committing eight turnovers, six in the first half.

“This is just another of those hard ways to go.”

The Lakers, who had fought back from nine points down, 96-87, with 6:59 to play to close within one, 99-98, on Michael Cooper’s three-pointer with 3:38 to go, had a chance to tie when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar rebounded a 12-foot miss by Rolando Blackman with 11 seconds to go.

After a Laker timeout, Cooper inbounded the ball to Magic Johnson in the front-court. Johnson gave it back to Cooper, who quickly slipped a bounce pass to Byron Scott--who had 27 points on the night--on the left wing. Scott measured his jumper, but when Dallas’ 7-foot Roy Tarpley charged his way, Scott flipped a pass to Worthy on the left baseline.

Worthy was all alone, which to the Lakers could only mean one thing.

“I saw a dunk,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said.

“I saw two points,” Scott said.

“All I see is two points and a tie score, that’s what I see,” Cooper said.

Donaldson, who had been on the bench for all but the last 11 seconds of the fourth quarter--shades of Riley sending Cooper in for the game-winning jumper against the Jazz in Game 5--saw he had but one option.

“There was just one thing I was thinking--I didn’t want him to dunk over me,” Donaldson said. “If he tried to, I knew I’d have to put him on the floor.

“But when I saw he wasn’t coming at me aggressively enough to dunk, I tried to make him do something in mid-air, alter his shot, which he’s great at doing.

“And that’s what he did, lofting the ball over my outstretched arm. I turned, got the rebound, and they fouled me.”

There were two ticks of the clock left when the ball came down in Donaldson’s welcoming hands, and Scott immediately hacked him. Worthy fixed a begoggled stare on referee Jess Kersey, whose whistle had remained silent amid the din of Reunion Arena when the Laker forward had sliced across the lane to be met by Donaldson’s upraised hands. Had contact been made?

In the quiet Laker dressing room, Worthy said it hardly mattered now.

“We moved the ball well,” Worthy said. “I knew where I wanted to go, to the basket. I knew what I had to do, and I didn’t get there.

“I haven’t seen the replay yet, but I had two things in mind--either to score or draw the body.”

Had he felt Donaldson’s body come too close for comfort?

“Basketball’s a contact sport,” he said with a shrug. “You can’t dwell on that.”

If the Lakers were left to ponder anything, it was why this game even came down to a last shot.

“I thought we were going to win it,” said Johnson, who had 17 of his 19 points in the second half, to go along with his 12 assists.

“There’s only been two or three times when I’ve felt like that, and we didn’t win. When we’re playing that kind of defense, when we’re boxing out like that, and we still don’t come out with (a win), that’s frustrating.”

Johnson had begun the Laker comeback with a baseline drive off a feed from Abdul-Jabbar to make it 96-89. Then Abdul-Jabbar knocked the ball away from Dallas guard Derek Harper on a drive through the middle, and Johnson threaded a pass to Mychal Thompson for the jam that made it 96-91.

Tarpley, who had only 12 points and 7 rebounds, hit a 19-footer behind a Sam Perkins screen to make it 98-91, and after Cooper rimmed a shot from three-point range, Perkins made one of two free throws.

Abdul-Jabbar scored on a layup after going almost 22 minutes between baskets, then rebounded a Tarpley miss, leading to Worthy’s 15-footer that made it 99-95 with 4:33 to go.

Rolando Blackman intercepted Johnson’s attempted alley-oop to Abdul-Jabbar, but the Laker center rebounded a hurried shot by Perkins and Cooper buried a three to make it 99-98 with 3:38 left.

Then, a key Dallas play: Guards Harper and Blackman both sneaked in for offensive rebounds and Mark Aguirre, who led the Mavericks with 23 points, lured Abdul-Jabbar into a goaltending call.

On the next possession, Tarpley slapped the ball out of Abdul-Jabbar’s hands, Aguirre picked it off the floor and Harper was fouled by Worthy. Harper, who had 17 points and 10 rebounds, missed the first and made the second, giving Dallas a four-point lead, 102-98, with 2:11 left.

Abdul-Jabbar, who had just eight points, then buried a 12-foot skyhook to cut it to two again with 1:49 left, but Aguirre came up with another critical offensive rebound, muscling inside Johnson for an easy layup and a 104-100 edge.

“I was guarding Tarpley,” Johnson said, “and all of a sudden he flashed to the middle. Somebody switched and Tarpley shot it quick. I didn’t see Mark. He did a good job of getting to the spot.”

Worthy blew past Perkins to make it 104-102, and Scott slapped the ball out of Perkins’ hands as he was driving to the basket, giving the Lakers a chance to tie. But Worthy lost it on the right baseline--”I think Mark (Aguirre) got his hands on it,” he said--only to get one last chance to even the score.

Instead, the Mavericks get another chance at something they’ve never done--win a playoff game at the Forum. They’ve lost nine in a row, including three blowouts in this series.

“Three laughers,” Donaldson said. “We’ve been laughed out of the building every time.

“But now, a Game 7--at least we’re there, with a chance to make something happen.”

Blackman, who had 22 points while playing 41 minutes of gritty defense on Scott, noticed that more than an hour had passed after the game and he had yet to make it to the shower.

“That’s the longest I’ve ever been left here,” he said with a big smile. “My wife’s out there waiting for me.”

This was one time, however, that it was worth the wait, he said.

“We have a chance now,” he said. “And you never know. You never know.”

That’s what makes Ultimate Games so much fun.

Laker Notes

Tickets for Game 7 will go on sale this morning at the Forum box office. Random numbers will be distributed at 8 a.m. . . . Mychal Thompson’s wife, Julie, gave birth to a 6-pound 7-ounce boy early Wednesday morning, the couple’s first child. The couple named their son Mychel. Asked the reason for the different spelling, papa Thompson said: “Because I didn’t want him to have to live up to my name.” One other Thompson observation about his son: “Twenty years from now, I’ll know how Ed Manning feels.” Ed Manning is the father of Danny Manning, the player the Clippers intend to take with the first choice in the NBA draft. . . . The Maverick rebounding edge Thursday was just two, 47-45. “But they had some big ones at the right time,” Laker guard Michael Cooper said. “We’ve got to remember our motto in ‘82: ‘No rebounds, no rings.’ ” . . . The Lakers led by a point after the first quarter, 26-25. Dallas led by three at the half, 53-50, and by two after three, 82-80.