Spurs Use a 20-0 Ambush to Run Lakers Out of Town : Pro basketball: San Antonio, without its starting guards, gets Dunleavy era off on the wrong foot, 110-99. Worthy scores 35.

Gone for the moment is the joy of arriving in a city where the locals are whooping it up over their heroes, then going out in a jammed arena and creating silence.

Instead, the Lakers are in transition. Saturday they found out more about what that means.

Coach Mike Dunleavy, taking over for Pat Riley, watched his team grab a 14-point lead, turn stone cold and topple like an icicle, 110-99, against the ambitious San Antonio Spurs in the season opener.

For the moment, the Lakers have to suck it up. All that talk around here was about the matchup between the team of the ‘80s and the team of the ‘90s--guess which was which?--and the Spurs breaking out their “We Want It Now” slogan, but there’s nothing the Lakers can do about it this trip.

“They’ve definitely got a team people are going to have to deal with in the ‘90s,” Magic Johnson said, “but so do we. So this is good. We’ll be right here and I think people know that.”

The Spurs got it now, all right, but it wasn’t quite what they expected. Shortly after fans filed in from a nearby pep rally, they learned they had lost both starting guards, Rod Strickland and Willie Anderson, with stress fractures.

They opened with veteran Paul Pressey and forward Sean Elliott in the backcourt, then held their breath and threw in rookie Sean Higgins and career disappointment Reggie Williams.

Just for old times’ sake, the Lakers hit them with a 38-point first quarter.

However, the Lakers went 6:07 without a point in the third quarter, looking unfamiliar with Dunleavy’s new system, to say the least. In 12 scoreless possessions, they had six of them (five turnovers, one blocked shot) in which they didn’t get the ball to the basket. They came in leading, 62-54, and came out behind, 74-62, before re-locating the offense.

“Hey, you go through a lot of ups and downs,” Dunleavy said. “You’re going good, you’re feeling good. They come at you, you’re trying to hold ‘em off at the pass, waiting for the cavalry.”

On this team, one man does the bulk of riding to the rescue, but he was breaking in a new saddle.

Johnson (14 points on three-of-10 shooting) is struggling with the offense. When it comes time for him to take over the game, or step up to stop an opponent’s run, he’s running new plays, finding himself in different areas of the court and trying to figure out how he can go one-on-one from there.

“It was a learning game for us,” Johnson said. “The difference, James (Worthy) is still getting his same shots, but the rest of us are getting different shots.

“This is what I said was going to happen to us. Sam (Perkins) played center the whole second half and Sam didn’t play center with us in exhibitions.

“I think I have to set the table a lot more, by which I mean, get the ball in the post, make them double-team and then we kick it out.”

The Lakers spent the rest of the afternoon in pursuit and to their credit, cut the lead to 96-94 on Johnson’s three-point shot with 3:21 left.

Moments later, trailing 98-95, the Lakers cleared a side for Worthy (35 points), their red-hot gun of the first half when he put Terry Cummings to the torch.

This time, the Spurs’ defense forced him to settle for a pull-up 18-footer off the dribble. It missed, the Spurs got the rebound and took off with it. At the other end, Cummings dunked over Terry Teagle, was fouled and made the free throw. The Lakers were never within five points again.

The Lakers dressed in a hurry and flew home, compliments hanging in the air behind them.

“I look around and you’re always trying to adjust to their lineup,” Spur Coach Larry Brown said. “They’ve got great players. They’ve got new players, a new coach but I still think they’re the team to beat.

“Every time I look out there, there’s Magic, Worthy, Byron Scott, now Terry Teagle and Sam Perkins. That’s not too shabby.”

Laker Notes

Sam Perkins, the “unspectacular” new Laker, had a terrific debut: 22 points, 10 rebounds, two of three on three-point shots, two blocks, two steals. . . . Perkins played 42 minutes, to starting center Vlade Divac’s eight, suggesting that the Vlade Experiment may not have a lot of time left in it. Divac scored on a three-point play the first time he touched the ball but picked up two fast fouls and watched most of the rest of the game. . . . Hot, hot, hot: James Worthy made eight of 11 shots in the first period, all from 15 feet or longer. He finished with 35 points, so it looks as if there is no carryover from his slump in the playoffs against Phoenix. . . . Sean Elliott, a rookie disappointment with San Antonio, played guard, scored 20 points and had seven rebounds. . . . Elden Campbell played 19 minutes, had four rebounds and three blocks. Under the old system, only a rookie as polished as Worthy played much but it appears that Coach Mike Dunleavy has plans for Campbell. . . . A.C. Green started, but played only 12 minutes. . . . The Lakers will play Portland at home Tuesday night.

* MIKE DOWNEY: For one game, a new style just doesn’t fit the Lakers. C14