Scott Drops the Bombs That Leave Pistons Shellshocked

In your place, in your face. This was Detroit’s desire. Break into the Lakers’ home, like thieves in the night. Knock them down and keep them down. Floor them on their own floor. Floor ‘em at the Forum. Go back to the Motor City in fifth gear, top down, hitting on all cylinders, cruising toward the title. Happy motoring.

Byron Scott felt he could not permit this to happen. Tuesday night’s defeat hit the Laker guard hard. Another Los Angeles loss would be the killer. He saw the whole team’s life pass before his eyes. “If it went to 2-zip,” Scott said of the NBA Finals, after L.A.’s 108-96 win Thursday tied things at one game apiece, “well, as Chick (Hearn) would say, close the refrigerator door. Say good night. End of season.”

Not to worry. Scott took matters into his own hands in Game 2, scoring 24 points, and took matters out of Isiah Thomas’ hands, holding him to 13. In the fast-start department, Scott left skid marks. He scored the first nine Laker points. Byron, shall we say, was poetry in motion.

End of season? Nope, not yet, Laker lovers. Hang onto your goggles, it’s going to be a bumpy series.

“You’ve been misled if you think the Lakers were in a slump,” Scott contended. “We’re not going to blow Detroit out. Detroit’s a quality team. This one’s going to be the best series of all of them.”

Strong words, considering what the Lakers went through against Utah and Dallas. Nevertheless, Scott likes what he has seen so far of the Pistons--or, more to the point, hates what he has seen so far of the Pistons. He has seen their hungry, relentless, sometimes suffocating defense. “Definitely one of the best defenses,” Scott said. “I’d have to put them in a class with Utah. Utah was the best defense we’ve played, but Detroit’s definitely a close second.”

This is, of course, precisely what Scott wants the Pistons to be when this series is over.

A close second.

“Now we go to their place, the Silverdome, to play in front of 50,000 screaming people,” Scott said. “These are going to be fans’-type games. Great stuff for the fans. The Motor City’s gonna be motoring. They’re going to be going crazy in the dome, and it’s up to us to shut them up.”

There is nothing like a long Scott shot to shut up an enemy audience. When Magic Johnson’s sidekick is on target, the Lakers can murder you from afar as well as from skyhook country. You do not have to cram the ball inside to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar all night or rely solely on Johnson and James Worthy to do their swoops and alley-oops to the hoops. Scott gives the team a fourth dimension. He’s their bazooka. Their long-range weapon.

Scott has been doing this for years, but never better than this year. Still, some people are just now discovering him. Just the other day, thinking of how much better a player he suddenly is supposed to be, Scott said: “I’ve been called new and improved so many times, I feel like a soap.”

Safeguard, let’s call him. Byron (Safeguard) Scott. The guy needs a nickname, like Magic and Cap and Coop. His teammates are always calling him “B,” for Byron, but that won’t do. It isn’t catchy. It’s unimaginative. And there is no use borrowing Adrian Dantley’s approach, going by his initials. Nobody wants to go through life being called “B.S.”

Scott has been doing so well for the Lakers this season, Norm Nixon has become as gone and forgotten as Dick Nixon. Scott took charge from the opening tip Thursday night, staking the Lakers to a 9-6 lead, singlehandedly. First a free throw, then two bombs from 27 feet away, worth three points apiece. Swish city. Detroit never led again.

Things tensed up a mite, though, late in the game, when the Pistons tied it, 80-80. What the Lakers needed was one more surge, and Scott gave it to them. The Lakers went on an 11-2 run, including a coast-to-coast breakaway by Byron. By the time Detroit got a timeout called with 5:13 to play, Safeguard Scott had made everything fresh and cool again, and only the opposition was in a lather.

Rick Mahorn was angry.

“He bumped me,” Scott said, explaining what happened when the players returned to their sidelines. “He bumped me, so I bumped him back. It was no big thing. That’s his image. He’s a tough guy. He was just trying to get under my skin, that’s all.”

Scott kept his emotions in check, just as he did when he got home after Tuesday’s very upsetting upset. He resisted the temptation to kick the dog and punch the refrigerator. He didn’t even slam the door of the microwave and pretend it was Vinnie Johnson. He kept cool. Chick’s fridge door hadn’t closed on the Lakers yet, not by a long shot. Not by a Scott shot.

“I was very upset, very disappointed with my performance, very disappointed with our performance as a team,” Scott said. “I was angry, but I didn’t want to take it out on my wife and kids. I wanted to do something about my play, something to get us going. I knew we couldn’t play any worse. You don’t go 101 or 102 games looking good and then lose it overnight.”

Scott made it happen. Not only did he score, he claimed six rebounds and did not commit a turnover in 44 minutes’ work. Try that sometime, with Isiah Thomas in your face. Try dribbling in a driveway for 44 minutes, by yourself, without turning the ball over once, kicking it into the rose bushes or something. Ain’t easy.

Scott got through the entire evening without making a mistake. He didn’t even make the mistake of messing with Mahorn. “I’ve never given up that many pounds or inches in a fight before,” Scott said, laughing.

The big fight, meanwhile, is even at a round apiece. Time to do some road work.