Lakers Stop Bucks’ Rally, 98-90 : Pro basketball: Johnson sprains his ankle, but it isn’t considered serious. He says he will play tonight against Spurs.

Like Maccabi of Tel Aviv, the Milwaukee Bucks lasted longer into Saturday night than had been expected. They cut a 13-point lead to 88-85 late in the game, but the Lakers fought them off and won, 98-90, in the Great Western Shootout at the Forum.

The Lakers thus will meet the San Antonio Spurs, 109-92 winners over the Cleveland Cavaliers, tonight at 7:30 for the title.

James Worthy led all scorers with 29. Magic Johnson left the game after spraining his left foot late in the third quarter. He went to the dressing room but returned to the bench. Coach Mike Dunleavy, however, didn’t put him back in.

Johnson says he’s OK and will play tonight.

“As soon as I saw what the injury was,” Dunleavy said, “I knew the season was all right.”

Also playing little, but for another reason, was center Vlade Divac, the most lightly used of the regulars in the exhibition season, who once more got in quick foul trouble and went only 17 minutes. Divac hasn’t gone more than 23 yet.

The rest of the Lakers started slowly, too. Dunleavy called a wakeup timeout with the Bucks ahead, 10-4, and about that time, Johnson told Divac to dunk the ball, after Divac took a pass from Magic on a fast break and missed a reverse layup.

About that time, the Laker off guards went off. Byron Scott hit two three-point baskets and finished the first quarter with 12 points. Then his replacement, Terry Teagle, coming off a seven-for-eight fourth quarter against Maccabi, went four for five and scored another 10 points by halftime. The Lakers led, 84-71, in the fourth quarter and made enough late free throws to choke off a Bucks rally.

“It’s a preseason game,” Buck Coach Del Harris, Dunleavy’s former boss, said. “The Lakers were up and down in the game.”

Said Johnson: “Portland, San Antonio, Milwaukee, they’re flowing. We’re not flowing right now, that’s the difference. Their system is already in. But it’s gonna flow.”

For the Spurs, winners in the opener, anything positive was a surprise. They lost to the Pistons Friday night in Auburn Hills, Mich., flew cross-country Saturday morning, got to the Forum at 3 in the afternoon and had to tip it off at 4:30. This is unusual punishment, even for an NBA exhibition.

Someone asked David Robinson who had done the scheduling.

“I don’t know,” the San Antonio center said. “Whoever did, I should kill him.”

Robinson had 21 points, eight rebounds and four blocks, and figures he’s far ahead of the same point last season.,

“Coach (Larry) Brown said I’ve improved,” Robinson said. “That’s a big step, getting him to say something positive about me.”