Magic’s Bailout Misses as Sonics Beat Lakers

This time, there was no buzzer-beating bailout of the Lakers by Magic Johnson, although he gave it a shot again Thursday night.

That tried-and-true formula, which had worked so well two nights before in Denver--Magic launching a desperation 3-point shot as time ran out--wasn’t the answer here, the Lakers falling to Seattle, 101-98, when Johnson’s bid for a tie went off the rim.

This time, the Lakers were left to answer for their 26 turnovers--giving them a 2-game total of 50--an exercise in slapstick that brought an abrupt end to their 4-game winning streak.

“We’ve got to handle the ball better and make better decisions,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “We made frivolous and flip passes and decisions, more than anything else.”

And that, more than anything else, is why the Lakers were done in by the SuperSonics on a night when other numbers normally would have added up to a Laker win:

--Only one Seattle player--Dale Ellis with 27--scored more than 12 points, and even Ellis got only 4 in the final quarter.

--The Lakers out-rebounded Seattle, 56-36, and almost doubled their usual number of offensive rebounds with 17.

--Playing at home, Seattle shot just 40%, a ghastly 26.3% in the fourth quarter.

--Tony Campbell, playing the entire fourth quarter, scored 10 points and blanketed Ellis on defense. On one play, Campbell missed a jumper, had his follow shot blocked by Michael Cage, recovered the ball himself, missed again, rebounded again and finally scored on his fourth try.

And with about 13 seconds left, it appeared that the Lakers would at least force a tie when a double-teamed Johnson worked a perfect pick-and-roll with James Worthy. But as Worthy glided to the basket for what looked to be an easy layup, Jerry Reynolds slid across and knocked the ball away, while coming dangerously close to pinning it against the glass, which would have been goaltending.

“When I turned, I wanted to get it to the basket as quickly as possible,” Worthy said. “I was blind to the defense so I tried to get it on the glass. I saw him (Reynolds) out of the corner of my eye.

“I thought I got it on the glass, but I won’t know till I see it again.”

The Lakers had no recourse then but to foul Michael Cage with 4 seconds left, and when Cage--an 85% free-throw shooter--missed his second attempt, the Lakers still had one more chance to tie.

Johnson ran a curl from the middle of the court to the left of the arc and received Michael Cooper’s inbounds pass, but Seattle’s Derrick McKey caused him to fumble the ball on one dribble, before he recovered and let fly with a one-handed shotput.

“When I turned, (McKey) hit it, so I had to rush the shot,” Johnson said. “It was on line, but it just didn’t get there.”

Had the shot gone, that would have been about the only delivery the Lakers had gotten right all night. Seattle’s trapping defense and constant double-teaming played a part, of course--the Lakers actually shot worse than Seattle in the fourth quarter, making just 6 of 23 shots for 26.1%--but it went far beyond that.

“A lot of bad mistakes in the open court, a lot of bad decisions,” Johnson said. “People were trying to do things they can’t do. We were over-dribbling--trying to go through their press dribbling, when you’ve got to pass through their press.

“We kept trying to fight over our turnovers, but you can’t beat the good teams like Seattle making that many turnovers.”

All the errors aside, the Lakers still managed to stay in striking distance. They were down 5 at the end of the first quarter, 30-25, and 2 at halftime, 49-47, after a second quarter in which the teams combined for more turnovers (13) than baskets (12).

Ellis got hot in the third quarter--he scored 15 points--but the Lakers were still within 4 at 82-78.

They trailed, 92-84, before outscoring the SuperSonics, 10-2, to draw even, 94-94, Campbell scoring the tying basket on a jumper over Ellis.

But the SuperSonics--who had lost 3 straight, including a one-sided decision to the Lakers in L.A. last Friday night--were able to stave off the threat, despite a great play by Johnson off a jump ball with 31 seconds to play.

Johnson tapped the ball from McDaniel, but Cage appeared to gain control from Abdul-Jabbar--until Johnson circled around from behind, slapped it away, then saved the ball from going out of bounds with a left-handed pass.

Johnson led the Lakers with 28 points--16 coming from the line--while Byron Scott had 19 and Campbell, playing minutes that normally would have gone to Michael Cooper, finished with 12.

“Tony was active, hustling, creating things,” Riley said. “I thought he’d be effective against their defensive traps and stunts.”

Cooper played just 10 minutes, scoring 2 points, and was yanked shortly after his cross-court pass was picked off by Sedale Threatt.

“We can’t make the kind of turnovers we made tonight,” Riley said. “We gave some away because we weren’t alert with the ball, not smart with the ball. Those are unforced turnovers, something I’ve been concerned about for some time, since training camp.”

There are several months left, of course, for the Lakers to get it right, but in the meantime there may be more nights like Thursday.

“We can’t be giving games away,” Riley said.