He Views 12-3 Lakers as a 3-12 Team

Pat Riley gave the Lakers a real chewing-out about a week ago. They trailed Houston at halftime by 15 points. They looked sluggish. They looked distinctly un-Lakerlike.

Even Byron Scott couldn’t blame the coach for coming down on everybody, saying: “The way we played, he should have kicked the door down and put us through a few doors.”

Three nights later, the Lakers lost to the Detroit Pistons. Yeah, them. There was a five-minute overtime during which the Lakers never scored, which seems inconceivable. And Riley suffered afterward, having seen his team handled by the NBA champions for the seventh straight time.

“I stayed up until 5 in the morning after that Detroit game,” Riley said Monday, after practice. “That’s how much the way we lost that game bothered me. I called my assistant coaches all night and kept them up, too, because misery loves company.”

Oh, those struggling, struggling Lakers.

They’re 12-3.

Don’t light any candles for the Lakers. They may no longer be the greatest show on Earth--or even the only game in town, as the Clippers will attempt to establish tonight at the Forum--but they are still the Lakers, still a dream team, still the same fearsome fivesome that has had a winning record in 25 of its last 28 seasons.

Is L.A. still in gear? Have the Lakers lost a step? Have they deteriorated?

Not that we can see. They look faster, quicker, slicker. Scott and A. C. Green never looked better. Vlade Divac and Larry Drew have been inspirations--Jerry West’s inspirations. And Riley is still the coach of the year, year after year, officially or un.

“I think yours truly’s spirits are up, for the most part,” Riley said. “We’ve put a lot of anxiety behind us. After losing the title, after all the spent emotion, we definitely wanted to get out of the blocks quickly. And we pretty much have.

“I just never want to make them comfortable. So, occasionally I go off on them, which takes its toll on all of us. It becomes: ‘When is he ever going to be happy? When is he ever going to lighten up?’ Well, I won’t. Because I don’t think the Lakers should ever settle for less.”

So, any major problems?

No, the Lakers look fine. They had Detroit whipped, most of the way, Friday night. And they nearly came back that night at Houston. They very easily could be 14-1. To beat the Lakers, teams still have to play some all-out ball.

You don’t often see the Lakers losing by scores like 100-75, the way some teams do. In the 1980s, the Lakers have lost by margins of 25 or more points exactly five times--twice since 1985. The Lakers never think they are out of any game. You don’t even have to put them through any doors.

How long can this go on? Not indefinitely. Magic Johnson is 30, which is sort of like seeing Shirley Temple grow up. He keeps promising not to play beyond his prime. He doesn’t want to play without fresh legs. Then again, he sure is shooting a lot of those hook shots lately, isn’t he?

James Worthy is 28, going on 18. This guy is perpetual motion. Oh, he does get tired once in a while, maybe semiannually. Otherwise, he runs and runs and runs and runs and runs. He’s a Timex. He ought to get an off-season job with the Department of Energy. James Worthy could stick his finger in a dead bulb and make it illuminate.

What’s new with the Lakers?

Vlade is new. He’s the one with the scratchy black beard, the one who looks as if he just got back from working as a deckhand on a boat off the coast of Malta. Twenty-five teams didn’t take Divac in the NBA draft. Twenty-five teams made mistakes. We’ll put him up against anybody you’ve got, Pervis or J. R. or Stacey or Pooh or any other rookie. You go your way; the Yugo goes our way.

“In a sense, I consider it a miracle to get a guy like Vlade,” Riley said.

With Mychal Thompson comfortably settling into his once-unwanted status as starting center and the 7-1 Divac as a spare, the Lakers have one of the NBA’s friskiest front lines.

Also new: Larry Drew. Here is a person who actually tried playing for the Clippers before going to Italy, a novel approach. Drew is the backup guard the Lakers projected David Rivers might be. Now, by coincidence, Rivers is a backup guard for the Clippers. They might bump into one another tonight.

Drew gives the Lakers a needed new dimension--a “prototype point guard,” as Riley put it--on the bench, far better than Rivers or Wes Matthews or others who have sat there.

The Lakers have enough talent to take another title. Riley just feels the need to stay after them from time to time, whenever they take this talent for granted. Occasionally he will go all red in the face, as he did that night at Houston, or as he did at the “Comic Relief” benefit when Whoopi Goldberg flirted with him from the stage.

Is he satisfied by a record of 12-3?

“Are you kidding?” Riley asked. “Did you see that Detroit game?”