Whoa, Guys, It Was Just First Exhibition : Lakers: Johnson plays an intense 42 minutes, all of second half, in a 119-115 victory over the Trail Blazers. But Portland wins a rematch, 104-93.

Under the tropical moon, the Lakers and Trail Blazers were supposed to stroll through an exhibition but a basketball game broke out.

In his debut, Mike Dunleavy looked into the eyes of Portland’s Rick Adelman Friday night, and before you could say “chicken” both coaches had decided to see their new players another day and rumble for real.

Score the first skirmish to the Lakers. The reigning Pacific Division champions were beaten upon for a half but came from 12 points down in the third quarter to drop the defending West Conference champion Trail Blazers, 119-115.

How intense was it?

Magic Johnson played an unheard-of-in-preseason 42 minutes and never came off the floor in the second half. James Worthy played 38. Four Trail Blazer starters played more than 30 minutes and the fifth, Kevin Duckworth, fouled out. The only rookie to touch the floor was the Lakers’ Elden Campbell, forced into the rotation by the absence of Sam Perkins, who had an infected toe.

Dunleavy had said he would play a lot of people but settled for 10 of his 17.

“Well,” he said, laughing, “I lied.

“I apologized to our guys. I said, ‘Really, this isn’t what the exhibition season is all about. But . . . it. I had to go for the win.

“It’s kinda one of those things where each team was trying to show each other where they stand. A statement has been made, from our standpoint. I saw a statement (that) they (the Trail Blazers) wanted to show us who the Western Conference champions were.”

Saturday night, both sides returned to their senses. Johnson went 21 minutes and the Trail Blazers made a statement of their own, beating the Lakers, 104-93.

Friday night, Johnson had a midseason line--28 points, 10 assists, eight rebounds. He resisted Dunleavy’s polite requests to rest in the second half. Johnson said that in 11 seasons, he’d only seen one other practice game like this.

“We played the Celtics . . . in the Forum in 1986,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately, we’d just played them in the finals in ’85 (which the Lakers won). That game Robert Parrish pushed Kurt (Rambis). (Maurice) Lucas pushed Parrish into the scorer’s table. Both benches emptied and we’re grabbing and tossing each other.

“It was so intense, the league said, ‘Never again, Lakers and Celtics.’ ”

At this rate, the league is going to have to bar Lakers-Trail Blazer exhibitions, not to mention the Lakers against all those other would-be dynastic successors in the West: San Antonio, Phoenix, Utah, Dallas.

Tuesday’s exhibition against Maccabi Tel Aviv should be cool, but you never know.