While Magic Sits, Subs Put Away Spurs, 107-100

Always eager to resume playing in the final minutes of a close game after a break on the bench, Magic Johnson tore off his sweatsuit and swiftly moved to midcourt to await insertion into the Laker lineup late in the fourth quarter Wednesday night.

There he sat for slightly more than two minutes, waiting for a stoppage of play. But while Johnson stretched and squirmed at the scorer’s table, the Lakers got along surprisingly well without him.

They went from an 88-88 tie with the San Antonio Spurs with 5:44 left to a 97-90 lead with 3:32 remaining, when Johnson finally entered the game after Coach Pat Riley called a timeout for just that purpose.

By then, though, Johnson’s role had changed from head of a Laker salvage operation to caretaker of a lead, which they did not squander in turning back the Spurs, 107-100, before 15,861 fans at the HemisFair Arena.

“It was killing me to sit there,” Johnson said. “I was about to go tell (Riley) to call a timeout. Even the scorer guy said to me, ‘You’re never going to get in.’ ”

The 2:12 of enforced idleness turned out to be quite important for the Lakers.

Not only did that surge without Johnson help the Lakers retain their two-game lead over the second-place Phoenix Suns in the Pacific Division with six games to play, it also gave the Laker reserves a measure of self-worth.

“It’s always a confidence builder when they can get a run like that without him,” Riley said. “When Earvin goes out of the game, we tend to defer and wait until he comes back for our offense. But tonight, we got our offense off the defense. We had a lot of (fast) breaks and completed them.”

This late-season victory was important to the Lakers in order to hold off the streaking Suns, who have won five straight. As a bonus, however, Riley seems to have finally settled the issue of his substitution pattern off the bench.

Productive in recent games, and especially effective Wednesday night, the Lakers seemingly now have settled upon swingman Tony Campbell to go with sixth man Michael Cooper and backup center Mychal Thompson. Center Mark McNamara may play a few minutes, as he did Wednesday, but Orlando Woolridge appears in limbo.

“I’m going to continue with it,” Riley said. “I like this rotation. I made the statement four games ago that I’d like to go with Tony more because we need the quickness and the defense. But I also want to get Mychal (Thompson) some more minutes. That’s the way it’s going to be, probably for the rest of the regular season.”

Johnson, who had 24 points and 10 rebounds when allowed to play, said he hopes Riley has settled on a substitution pattern for the sake of continuity.

“I think (Riley) was waiting to see what would work,” Johnson said. “But I think it’s all set now. I just hope we’re set on something. We need to know because me, as the guy running the show, needs to know what plays to run if (Campbell) is in there or if (Woolridge) is in there.”

Laker reserves accounted for 19 points and seven rebounds Wednesday night, but the contributions on defense were immeasurable. Campbell, who played 22 minutes, helped the Lakers initiate their running game. Thompson, whose 27 minutes were four more than starter Kareem Abdul-Jabbar logged, had 12 points. And Cooper was tenacious as usual on defense and scored a three-point play to culminate that 9-2 run during Johnson’s sit-in.

Johnson was waiting to replace Cooper when the Lakers’ sixth man scored on a fastbreak layup and was fouled with 4:07 to play. With Johnson still sitting, Cooper made the free throw for a 97-90 Laker lead. The game went on, each team missing shots without a stoppage of play.

Finally, with 3:32 left, Spur Coach Larry Brown called a timeout. Johnson thought he was free at last to enter the game, but Brown cunningly changed it to a 20-second timeout, during which substitutions cannot be made. Johnson looked at Riley and shrugged his shoulders. Only then did Riley call a timeout, and Johnson finished out the game.

The Laker starters still were the main contributors. A.C. Green had 17 points and 11 rebounds, while James Worthy also had 17 points. Abdul-Jabbar scored 14 points, including two key baskets on sky hooks in the fourth quarter.

San Antonio has lost 14 of its last 16 games. The Spurs did not go down without a fight, though. Alvin Robertson led them with 22 points, while forwards Willie Anderson and Jay Vincent each had 21.

Laker Notes

CBS, which had the option to televise Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s final regular-season game April 23 at the Forum, has chosen instead to air a game between Atlanta and Detroit. The Lakers said the game, originally scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m., might be changed to a night game so that it could be televised on the Prime Ticket network. Coach Pat Riley, for one, was surprised that CBS chose to skip Abdul-Jabbar’s final regular-season game. “It’s their loss,” he said. “I’m sure they’re thinking, ‘We’ll see him in the playoffs.’ But they won’t see him like they will in this game. . . . ..(But) Kareem’s going to have a nice day whether CBS wanted to televise it or not.” . . . In one of the briefest Abdul-Jabbar farewell ceremonies so far, the Spurs presented the Laker center with a portrait of himself and a check of $10,000 that will go to charity. Abdul-Jabbar, acknowledging the fans’ support of basketball in San Antonio, told the crowd: “I’ve gotten to know what Texas hospitality is all about. You let your feelings show.”