Lakers Leave Door Ajar; Kings Can’t Get Through

There might be a temptation to devalue the Lakers’ victory Thursday night because it came against the Sacramento Kings and because the Lakers did not play that well.

But considering that they played a road game one night after a draining double-overtime loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, the Lakers’ 101-92 victory was at least competent, if not overly impressive.

They won despite making only 13 field goals in the second half. They went 11 minutes 34 seconds in the second half without a field goal but did not lose the lead. They also saw a 14-point lead with 2:29 left dwindle to six points and had to sink a succession of free throws to stave off the last-place Kings.

And, given the Lakers’ recent penchant for losing leads, Coach Pat Riley called a timeout with 20 seconds to play and his team leading by 10 points . . . just to make sure.

Those negatives aside, the Lakers (36-12) did manage to get another road victory, always an achievement in the NBA. They maintain the league’s best record and improved their road record to 14-9.

That was enough to satisfy the Lakers, experienced enough to know that any victory is a good victory.

“I have yet to see an ugly baby or an ugly victory,” Laker center Mychal Thompson said. “We’ll take them any way we can.”

Riley, often the Lakers’ most severe critic, seemed more relieved than pleased by the victory. He is as concerned as anyone about the Lakers’ recent habit of squandering leads. Both Riley and his players say it stems more from defensive deficiencies than offensive stagnancy.

Again Thursday night, the Lakers were outrebounded. This time, Sacramento held a 47-41 edge. The Kings had 16 offensive rebounds, and the Lakers say having to work harder on defense against second shots is affecting their offense. “We need to eliminate those second shots,” said James Worthy, who led the Lakers with 20 points despite playing with an injured right shoulder. “We can’t let teams do that all the time. Once we eliminate it, it’ll help our half-court game.

“It always comes back to our own defense when our offense struggles. When we have to work harder against the second shots, you don’t get out and run as much on the fast break, and that hurts.”

Riley said the Lakers were sluggish partly because of fatigue from the double-overtime loss to Portland and partly because the six-day break for the All-Star game put them out of sync.

“We bounced back,” Riley said. “We did a lot of good things tonight. We didn’t give up an inordinate amount of second shots. But we’ve got a ways to go before we’re all the way back. We aren’t real focused right now. We have these lapses.

“The win is important, but if we don’t get sharper Sunday against the Celtics, a big physical, rebounding team, we’ll struggle again. Tonight, we had two or three spells where we lost the feel for the game, where we don’t execute.”

Maybe because these were the Kings (13-35), the Lakers could afford lapses and still persevere.

The Lakers’ first nap came midway through the first half, when they went eight possessions and nearly five minutes without making a field goal. Yet, they never lost the lead and enjoyed an eight-point advantage at halftime.

After coming out strongly at the start of the third quarter, the Lakers slipped into a stagnant state just as quickly. Byron Scott’s jump shot with 7:36 to play in the quarter gave the Lakers a 63-49 lead, but they did not score another field goal for the rest of the quarter and the first 3:58 of the fourth quarter.

The Lakers’ nine points in that span came on free throws. Vlade Divac finally broke the spell with a fast-break dunk with 8:02 left to return the Laker lead to eight points.

Sacramento could not take advantage of the Laker offensive droughts because they sank only 42% of their shots, partially because of the Lakers’ improved half-court defense.

Wayman Tisdale led the Kings with 23 points and nine rebounds, and Antoine Carr added 17 points in his King debut after arriving from Atlanta in the Kenny Smith trade.

It appeared that the Lakers had finally put away the Kings for good when Magic Johnson sank a three-point shot for an 89-75 lead with 2:29 to play. But 1:17 later, the Kings had scored eight consecutive points and pulled to within six.

In the end, the Lakers pulled away because they simply have more talent than the Kings.

Worthy, who said he injured the rotator cuff in his right shoulder about a week ago, made 10 of 14 shots. Scott and Johnson each scored 17 points, Divac had 13 and Orlando Woolridge 11.

Even though the Lakers made only 43.6% of their shots and were outrebounded for the second consecutive game, they are not willing to toss back a victory because it was not overpowering. “In the most important respect,” Scott said, “our main objective was to come out here and get a (victory). We accomplished that. We just got to work on the rest of our game.”

Johnson, for one, said he predicted a tough game against the Kings after the 58-minute marathon against the Trail Blazers.

“We knew we’d be in trouble after double overtime,” Johnson said. “We just wanted to come out and win any way possible.”

Laker Notes

James Worthy said he started feeling pain in his right shoulder about a week ago. During most Laker timeouts, he attaches a heating pack to his shoulder to keep it from stiffening. “It’s just the socket or the rotator cuff--whatever you want to call it,” Worthy said. “I hope it doesn’t get to be a big deal. Now that I know what it is, I can take care of it.” . . . Worthy said that the Kings did not get the better end of the Antoine Carr-for-Kenny Smith trade. “I think they are going to miss Kenny Smith,” Worthy said. “He is a quality point guard. I think you can already see that.”