Lakers Again Find a Cure on Home Court, 133-120

As long as the Lakers remain in their comfort zone inside the Forum, all appears well and their slump seems merely to be a nuisance of the road.

Once again Wednesday night, the home court provided an answer to the Lakers’ problems--at least until the next trip. Their latest recovery was a 133-120 pounding of the Portland Trail Blazers that ran their winning streak at the Forum to 11 games.

If you followed the Lakers only at home--one way to avoid the recent unpleasantness--you would think that they were slightly off their game. No big worries, though, and certainly no cause for roster-purging.

But in truth, the Lakers came slinking back to town a shaken team after Tuesday night’s loss in Seattle, their seventh straight on the road. Their offense was missing in action and their defense lax, and furrowed brows could be seen all around. Coach Pat Riley talked of impending changes, and Laker players talked of a crisis of confidence.

None of those deficiencies surfaced Wednesday night before a sellout crowd of 17,505, though. The Lakers (20-11) did an excellent job of masking their faults, as they have done all season at the Forum.

Their motivation took several forms: They wanted to make up for another road loss, reinforce their dominance at home and remain in first place in the Pacific Division.

They reached all those goals easily.

Behind Mychal Thompson’s best game of the season (27 points and 11 rebounds), and with James Worthy (25 points) and Byron Scott (24 points on 11-of-12 shooting) augmenting the offensive revival, the Lakers opened a lead of as many as 23 points in the first half and held off a series of second-half surges by the Trail Blazers.

The Lakers’ turnaround from Tuesday night was dizzying, even to Riley. But it was not entirely unexpected, either, considering that the Lakers are the only team in the National Basketball Assn. that is unbeaten at home.

“It’s mystifying to me,” said Riley, when asked about the Home Lakers compared to the Road Lakers. “Good teams are not allowing other teams to go into their building and win.

“The difference in us is the opposition, the arenas, our comfort zone (at home) and the hostility of the road. But (the road slump) is mystifying because I know we are a better road team than this. But we have to go out and prove it.”

Wednesday’s victory, over a team that the Lakers struggled to beat by 1 point in November, seemed to indicate that the slump was not catastrophic.

“When we keep reading how vulnerable we are, I think they really wanted to respond to that tonight,” Riley said. “We came out strong. We were defensively active. There were five alert minds out there.”

A.C. Green hurt the Trail Blazers early, and Worthy was a constant offensive force in the first half. Scott’s only missed shot was on his first attempt in the second half; Michael Cooper found his shooting touch by sinking two 3-point shots, and all Magic Johnson did was register 18 points and 15 assists.

But the big lift off the bench came from Thompson, who played 32 minutes in relief of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (4 points in 16 minutes).

Once a big scorer when he played for Portland, Thompson long ago accepted his role-playing status as a Laker. But now that his role has expanded with Abdul-Jabbar’s decline, Thompson believes it is time for him to contribute more.

“Riles is giving me the chance to play more minutes, and I’ve got to be more productive,” Thompson said. “He didn’t have to say anything to me. I’ve been in the league 11 years. I should know that.”

Thompson made 10 of 16 shots and also had 4 offensive rebounds. In one breath, he said he is capable of posting such statistics in every game. In the next breath, though, he displayed shock.

“I was just in a daze out there,” Thompson said, laughing. “The ball just kept coming my way. I was like every girl at the Forum. Just keep your eyes on Magic and good things happen.”

Johnson, who was downcast after Tuesday night’s loss, liked what he saw on this night.

“We finally played a 48-minute game,” Johnson said. “Offensively, defensively, everything clicked for us.

“We finally had a lot of spurts, rather than just a few of them. They made their runs. But tonight, instead of them making a game (of it), we came back with runs of our own.”

The Lakers shot 76% in the first quarter en route to a 13-point lead, 38-25. And, despite Portland’s attempt to rally, they increased the margin to 72-51 at halftime.

Portland, coming off a home victory over lowly Miami Tuesday night, made its most serious threat in the first 5 minutes of the third quarter. An 18-8 run sliced the Laker advantage to 80-69. The surge was led by Clyde Drexler, who scored 21 of his game-high 33 points in the second half, and Kevin Duckworth, who finished with 23 points.

But the Lakers retaliated with a 16-4 run that pretty much ended any further Trail Blazer comeback hopes.

“We played as well in the first half as we have all season,” Worthy said. “We had to remind ourselves at the start of the second half not to get lazy and let them back in the game.”

Another home victory--and one against a quality team--does not signal an end to the Lakers’ troubles, but it obviously was preferable to the alternative.

“We have heard so many times this season how down in the dumps we are and that we aren’t any good this season,” Thompson said.

“Some people said we’d be in third place after tonight. We proved tonight we still have a good team, and I don’t think people can say differently.”