It’s Just Another Easy Win : Lakers: Pat Riley keeps playbook closed as team concludes exhibition season undefeated by beating Cleveland.

Pat Riley’s copy of the Laker playbook, usually dogeared by now, has hardly been opened throughout the exhibition season.

Not coincidentally, the new, fast-break-oriented Lakers have concluded their exhibition schedule undefeated for the first time in franchise history after beating the Cleveland Cavaliers, 135-115, Sunday night before 16,160 fans at the Forum.

Dominating all challengers, good or bad, the Lakers won eight consecutive exhibitions without even a close encounter. They outscored their opponents by an average of 115.8 to 97.1, by keeping the half-court offense uncomplicated and running as much as possible now that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar no longer is in the middle.

Now comes 10 days of practice, during which the Riley will try to resist the temptation to flip through the playbook and add a slew of new wrinkles to the offense heading into the Nov. 3 regular-season opener in Dallas. “We’re trying to keep it very simple,” Riley said. “It’s been difficult for me not to go to the playbook. I’m trying to keep things open, look for that spontaneity in the fast break. Because now, if we start to grind it out, teams will start pounding us.”

No team was able to do that in the exhibition season, if any stock can be taken from practice games. The Lakers pounded the bad (Sacramento twice, New Jersey and Minnesota), the good (Phoenix, Seattle and the injury-depleted Cavaliers) and the so-so (Philadelphia).

And they have done it by running a controlled fast break, untethered now that Abdul-Jabbar is not lodged in the middle. Expect the Lakers to become a little more patterned once the regular season starts, but not much.

“We have to move and be more spontaneous, because we don’t have that safety deposit box (Abdul-Jabbar) down low,” said Mychal Thompson, Abdul-Jabbar’s successor at center. “Besides, you don’t harness the stallions we got on this team. You’ve got to let them roam free.”

The Lakers, however, are not exactly running wild. There is a pattern to their fast-break mentality, and they do run set plays. But they are pushing the ball more.

“I’m sure that, as time goes on, we’ll be adding more (plays),” James Worthy said. “I don’t think the coaches want to let on what they’ve got planned. What we’ll be doing this year are very basic, fundamental things, like just filling the lanes on the fast break and just one or two options in the offense.”

Sunday, the Laker offense thrived both on the fast break and in half-court situations. Magic Johnson had 24 points and 17 assists. Byron Scott and Michael Cooper each had 17 points, and Thompson and Vlade Divac added 16 and 15, respectively.

Although the Lakers were outrebounded, 45-38, they shot 60.2% from the floor and limited the Cavaliers to 43.3% shooting.

Summing up the exhibition season, Riley said: “We’ve answered a few questions that I had going in. One is the center position. I think Mychal, Vlade and Mark (McNamara) give us a lot of depth. We knew what Mychal could do as a starter, but Vlade has shown that he is a productive, solid player.

“I also saw Earvin play four positions and make us versatile. And I liked what I saw of Larry Drew (at backup point guard). We know what we have now, so we can go back to practice and just hone. I don’t want to mess too much with what we’ve done. We’ll just work on a few specialty situations.”

Johnson said he is a little concerned about the long break before the start of the regular season.

“I guess we do need to practice,” he said. “We’ll have to wait until we get back to Camp Riley and see what happens.”

Laker Notes

Tops on Coach Pat Riley’s wish-list going into the regular season is acquiring another backup center or a shooting guard, so the Lakers will be watching the waiver wire this week. But Riley said the club is pleased with rookie free agent forward Mel McCants and Mike Higgins as well as swingman Steve Bucknall. “We’ll continue to evaluate our free-agent players and also see what’s out there,” Riley said. “But I would like to get another big power-forward type.” . . . The seepage on the Forum court from the ice below made conditions so slippery during the Laker-Cavalier game that referees ordered rosin sprinkled on the floor . . .Ron Harper had 32 points and Mark Price 26 for the Cavaliers, who are playing without injured big men Brad Daugherty and Larry Nance.

The highlight of the Golden State Warriors’ 123-98 victory over Philadelphia 76ers in Sunday’s first game was Charles Barkley’s acrobatic save of a loose ball. Barkley jumped on a baseline press table, scattering sportswriters, flipped the ball back onto the court, then landed feetfirst on a chair in the first row about 10 feet off the court. Barkley was not hurt; the chair was mangled. . . Lithuanian guard Sarunas Marciulionis led Golden State with 21 points and Terry Teagle added 20 . . . Barkley and Mike Gminski had 17 points each for the 76ers, who are 1-4 in the exhibition season.