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Magic’s Free Throws Save Streak of Lakers : Pro basketball: Johnson, Scott lead comeback from eight points down with 2:41 to play, making Sacramento winless at the Forum in the 1980s.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Jerry Reynolds won’t have to put up with this much longer. His sentence as coach of the Sacramento Kings lasts only as long as it takes to apprehend a successor.

Games such as Tuesday night’s 104-102 loss to the Lakers at the Forum might be the reason Reynolds, coaching now only for the interim, so quickly accepted the job as the Kings’ player personnel director.

So close to ending the franchise’s 15-year losing streak at the Forum, Sacramento did what it does best and frittered away a double-figure fourth-quarter lead en route to a last-second loss.

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“It sure would have been nice to end it,” Reynolds said. “This was our best chance ever against the Lakers. Sacramento has never been this close. We knew it would be close down the stretch, but . . . But, but, but . . .”

So, the Lakers’ home-court domination over the Kings survived the 1980s, after all. The Kings now have lost 37 straight games at the Forum, 39 counting the playoffs. Their last victory here was on Oct. 20, 1974.

Most of the losses were not as close as this one. It took some doing on the Lakers’ part to keep the streak intact. In fact, for the longest time, it appeared the teams were locked in a role reversal, as the Kings repeatedly shook off Laker runs to retain a comfortable lead.

But, in the end, the Lakers showed why they have the league’s best record at 20-6, and the Kings showed why they have a nine-game losing streak that is the club’s longest since 1976.

Sacramento led by as many as eight points with 2:41 to play, when the final Laker surge simply overtook the Kings. The Lakers erased the deficit with revived outside shooting by Byron Scott, who had 26 points; clutch baskets by Magic Johnson, who had 27; an effective half-court trap; and missed free throws and jump shots by the Kings’ Wayman Tisdale.

Until the final minute, though, Tisdale was nearly unstoppable. He scored 33 points, but missed two free throws with 34 seconds with the teams tied, 102-102. Tisdale also missed a last-second attempt from the corner after the Lakers had taken a 104-102 lead.

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How the Lakers acquired the lead was as impressive as it was hard-earned. Back-to-back jump shots by Scott in a 14-second span pulled the Lakers to within 102-100, prompting a Sacramento timeout.

On the Kings’ next possession, Johnson stole the ball from Kenny Smith and converted a left-handed shot to tie it, 102-102. After Tisdale’s missed free throws, the Lakers had the ball with 33 seconds left and a chance to win.

Naturally, they gave the ball to Johnson, who was fouled underneath. He made both free throws, prompting another King timeout.

The best the Kings could get from there was Harold Pressley’s errant jump shot from the top of the key. The long rebound came to Tisdale in the corner. His attempt bounced off the rim.

“We wanted to get the ball inside to Wayman, but he kicked it out to Harold for what I thought was a good shot,” Reynolds said.

The Lakers struggled most of the night, living down to Coach Pat Riley’s “sluggish, lethargic and boring” criticism of the previous game. By the end, they had shot 53% from the field and had snapped out of their stupor.

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“We got to come out and play like we do in the last six minutes of the game in the first quarter,” Scott said. “We got to change our outlook on basketball.”

Partly because of good play by the Kings and partly because of Laker sloth, Sacramento led by 15 points at one point in the second quarter. The Lakers reduced that to a four-point deficit by halftime and then two points entering the fourth quarter.

With Johnson and Scott starting the fourth quarter on the bench, the Lakers did not score a point for the first five minutes, 12 seconds. The Kings built a 91-79 lead. Tisdale was nearly unstoppable. He scored 13 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter.

Just when the Lakers appeared out of it and the streak over, they were revived.

It started when Johnson scored on a three-point play inside with 6:48 left to end the drought. Scott then sandwiched successful three-point shots around a jump shot by A.C. Green. Scott and Green (16 points, 11 rebounds) continued the assault, until Johnson took over in the final minute.

“We were just stuck in the mud,” Riley said of the Laker offense. “We needed some three-pointers and some great plays, but we’ll take it. We have some offensive problems. We’ll work on them.”

The resurgence of Scott, who had made just five of 28 shots in his previous three games, may signal the return of the Lakers’ effective offense.

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“Maybe this will open it up,” Johnson said. “With (Scott) not being hot outside and (opponents) double-teaming James (Worthy, 19 points) and myself, that makes it tough. But that last five or six minutes, we were going the way we should.”

Johnson smiled, then added: “We weren’t going to let them end (the streak) just then.”

Laker Notes

Center Mychal Thompson, out more than a week with bursitis in his left heel, suited up but did not play Tuesday night. Valde Divac started in Thompson’s place and had 12 points and eight rebounds . . . John MacLeod continues to be the leading candidate to replace Jerry Reynolds as the King coach. Reynolds, the new player personnel director who is coaching on an interim basis until a successor can be found, is heading the search for a new coach and hopes to land one in the next 10 days. If MacLeod turns down the Kings, Golden State Warrior assistant Mike Schuler reportedly is the second choice.

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