Lakers Give the Bad Boys a Beating : Pro basketball: L.A. wins seventh in a row by handing the Pistons their worst defeat in more than a year, 114-90.

The Lakers, having surmounted all other recent obstacles, underwent the most grueling test the NBA has to offer, trial by Bad Boys.

Who was baddest Tuesday night? The Lakers, and it wasn’t close, either. James Worthy scored 23 points, Magic Johnson turned in his fifth triple-double and they tamed the savage Detroit Pistons, 114-90, before 17,505, the season’s first Forum sellout.

Remember when sellouts were routine and a rotation of Johnson, Byron Scott and your grandmother would have qualified as the league’s best backcourt?

The Lakers have won seven in a row. Scott made seven of nine shots and is 20 for his last 24. Third guard Terry Teagle came out of a season-long slump with a five-for-nine second half. The Lakers once led by 31 points.

“We didn’t see a good team,” Piston Coach Chuck Daly said. “We saw a great team. . . . They are possibly better than ever before.”

Said Isiah Thomas: “It seemed like we were playing a regular-season game and the Lakers were playing for the NBA final.”

Since Bad Boys will be Bad Boys, this couldn’t be accomplished without a near-riot.

Worthy and Bill Laimbeer bumped chests after Laimbeer did one of his Bad Boy specials, a two-handed rake of Worthy’s shoulders while Worthy was making a layup. The players were pulled apart by many of their teammates and each was assessed a technical foul, although no punches were thrown.

“Typical Laimbeer,” sneered Mike Dunleavy. “He has a chance to take a foul, he’s going to accentuate it. He’s going to give it a little extra.”

Also, Mark Aguirre, the noted heavyweight, snarled at A.C. Green late in the game, though Green merely waved him off. Aguirre got another technical and the Pistons got carried off on their shields.

“Pretty quality win,” Dunleavy said. “I couldn’t ask for a finer game.”

In fact, no one has beaten the Pistons that badly since Dec. 2, 1989. If not for Lance Blanks’ dunk and Scott Hastings’ free throws in the final seconds of the extended garbage time, it would have been the Bad Boys’ worst whipping in three seasons.

The Pistons arrived with a 13-3 record, and even if Daly was singing the blues, it appeared to be out of habit. Daly, the self-described “optimist with experience,” had spotted danger lurking in a long trip that began Saturday in Washington and carries through Oakland, Sacramento and Utah.

“I’m a little surprised at our start, frankly,” Daly said before the game. “I was a little concerned. But it’s not over yet.

“Last year we were 13-10 after 23 games. Hopefully, we can do a little better this time.”

He was right, it wasn’t over yet.

The game started furiously. The Lakers scored on nine of their first 12 possessions . . . and led, 20-19.

The teams were not farther apart than five points until late in the second quarter when Green and four starters tore off a 9-0 streak (six points by Johnson, plus a pass to Sam Perkins for a layup) that gave the Lakers a 55-44 halftime lead.

They were up by 15 in the third quarter when Perkins blocked successive shots by Thomas and Aguirre, launching the fast break that threatened to become a melee. Laimbeer semi-wrapped up, semi-smacked Worthy as he went to the basket.

“It’s not a coincidence,” Worthy said. “Every time something happens on that team, it’s him. He hit me in the head. It was totally unacceptable.”

Laimbeer said Worthy “overreacted.”

Worthy made his free throw. On the next trip down, Teagle tossed in a 15-foot turnaround jump shot. The Lakers, reacting dramatically themselves, led by 20 points at the end of three quarters and ran it up to 106-75 in the fourth quarter.

All that was left was the celebrating, which they tried to hold to a minimum.

“We can’t be sitting here, going, ‘We’ve won seven in a row, we’re back,’ ” Johnson said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

But they won’t do any more of it on the Bad Boys for a while. For that, both sides can give thanks.

Laker Notes

Byron Scott, shooting 41% two games ago, is up to 46%. Said Mike Dunleavy of Scott: “The only thing I could tell you, I know he hadn’t been shooting the ball the way he could, but when we played ‘horse’ in practice, he’d shoot the lights out. It wasn’t his stroke so it had to be his confidence.” . . . Who won in “horse?” “He made 10 threes in a row,” Dunleavy said, “and he lost.” . . . Said Scott: “I made 10 three-pointers in a row and he made 11. That’s where it started. I think it kinda ticked me off that my coach could beat me.” . . . James Worthy scored 15 first-quarter points on ace stopper Dennis Rodman. . . . Bill Laimbeer wears a plastic mask to protect a broken cheekbone. “I told him he ought to put chevrons on it or Pepsi-Cola symbols or something from the Phantom of the Opera,” Piston Coach Chuck Daly said.