He Doesn’t Figure to Be Cooped Up Too Long

Sad is the day that the Lakers must sit down Michael Cooper. As a rule you don’t take out Michael Cooper when you want to give your basketball team a lift. You put him in.

The Coopster, alas, donated 20 literally if not figuratively pointless minutes to Game 1 of the Western Conference playoff series against the Phoenix Suns, which the Lakers lost. So, Coach Pat Riley felt compelled to do something. The time had come to shake up and wake up the Lakers, if only gently.

Enter Larry Drew. Early. When Riley made his first substitution in the backcourt Thursday night at the Forum, there were no cries of “Cooooop! Cooooop!” Of course, there were no cries of “Drewwwww! Drewwwww!” either, but that may be because some of those in the postseason-party crowd of 17,505 didn’t recognize Larry Drew.

After all, Drew had worked only 11 minutes in five Laker playoff games, including the series against Houston. He didn’t even get into two of the five games. And there isn’t much a dude can do when they only allot you a couple of minutes. It is plenty of time if you happen to be riding Unbridled, but for a professional basketball player, two minutes is barely enough time make it necessary to launder your socks.

Hard to tell what part Larry Drew played in the Lakers’ 124-100 Game 2 victory. You couldn’t exactly call him an inspiration. In the 19 minutes he spent on court, Drew made no hoops, took no shots, snatched no rebounds, had three assists. It was what you might call a quiet contribution.

“Pat just told me to be ready to get the call when my number’s called,” Drew said later. “It really doesn’t matter if I’m the first guard off the bench or not. I’m just trying to do something positive. And the first thing on my mind is defense, not offense.”

Drew did do something positive. He must have. And that’s good. Because the Lakers need backcourt backup. Magic Johnson and Byron Scott are made of flesh and blood; never was that so apparent as last season, when side by side they watched a Laker dynasty end, hamstrung to do anything about it.

In olden days, Michael Cooper would have come to the rescue. Riley called on 21 the way others dialed 911. But Coop’s heroism nowadays is confined more to specific plays than to total performance.

Is Michael Cooper washed up?

We hope not and think not. Coop still has plenty of smarts and heart. The legs might have betrayed him a bit, and his shooting certainly has--he is one of 18 from the floor in the playoffs, thus the demotion--but nobody is inclined yet to say that Michael Cooper’s NBA days are numbered. One will get you 10 that before these playoffs are over, Cooper will do something spectacular, something that will have the Forum faithful cooing his name.

In the meantime, Riley evidently has decided to move Drew from fourth guard to third. And this is no unimportant promotion for the Lakers. They have depended on Cooper so long and so often that it has become second nature. The Lakers of the 1980s expected no serious dropoff in quality when Riley went to his bench. Cooper would take the baton from Scott or Johnson and run a beautiful relay leg.

That is the one thing missing with the Lakers of today. The irony of Life After Kareem is that the team seems as sound as ever on the front line, where Orlando Woolridge and Vlade Divac, the Flying Getashotov Brothers, virtually never fail to enter a game and motivate both the Lakers and their fans. They did so Thursday. They do what Coop used to do.

It is at guard, where Los Angeles has perhaps the greatest one to ever play the game, that the Lakers must show improvement if they are to wear the NBA crown for the third time in four years. Drew did his bit in Game 2. He gave the regulars a rest, and attached himself close enough to Phoenix’s Jeff Hornacek that at times they appeared to be dancing the lambada.

But there was precious little offense supplied by the Laker reinforcements at guard. In fact, this entire postseason has been nothing but bad news in that department. How many baskets have Laker backup guards made in six playoff games? Two, that’s how many. Repeat: two. We are not exactly talking Vinnie Johnson here, are we?

“At least we got off to a fast start--finally,” Drew said. “I don’t know what the reason was. I doubt it was me. But at least we finally got off to a good start instead of a bad one.”

The No. 3 guard situation might not be something Pat Riley considers to be of an urgent nature, but it doesn’t exactly put him to bed dreaming of City Hall and parades. As long as playing Larry Drew earlier proved worthwhile in Game 2, might as well do it again in Game 3. Do whatever works.

And Michael Cooper? Don’t worry. We may be seeing him later than usual, but we haven’t seen the last of him.