Finally, Showtime for Teagle : Pro basketball: He scores 17 points--nine during the fourth quarter--to power L.A. past Washington, 106-99.

Score one for Terry Teagle, who needed it. The former Golden State Warrior, whose Laker debut had been on the quiet side, went off Sunday night, as advertised if not as originally scheduled.

Teagle scored nine of his 17 points in the fourth quarter as the Lakers shook off the pesky Washington Bullets to win their ninth game in the last 10, 106-99, before 15,809 at the Forum.

The Lakers led by 15 points before Bernard King single-handedly revived his teammates, scoring 15 of his 40 points in the third quarter and trimming the lead to 75-73.

In the nick of time, Teagle started raining jumpers on the Bullets.

“Hey, we had to have it from Terry tonight,” Laker Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “If we don’t get the performance we did, I don’t think we win the game.

“They’re a tough team. They’ve beaten Golden State twice, Chicago once, Detroit. Looks like they get after the big teams. They’re a typical Wes Unseld team. They play extremely hard, and when you’ve got a guy like Bernard King...

“He (King) had it going as well as I’ve seen anybody get it going.”

King entered the game the No. 4 in the league in scoring.

Teagle entered somewhat cooler--making 41% of his shots, going six for 15 on the last Laker trip.

At least, Dunleavy said, Teagle hadn’t been passing up any shots.

“If he showed he didn’t have confidence in his shot,” Dunleavy said, “we’d have had to have a talk.”

Said Teagle: “I just felt like, when I come into the game, I wanted to do some of the things I did at Golden State, keep the pressure on, move it up a notch. I hadn’t been able to do that here yet. I didn’t feel like I was pressing. I felt comfortable. I was getting the shots I want.

“But I had thought they’d be falling by now.”

Comfortable or not, Teagle’s countenance recently suggested less than perfect joy.

Then came the night the Lakers needed him.

The scrappy Bullets give the giants fits with one of the least-publicized lineups in the league, including a starting guard named Haywoode Workman and another guard Larry Robinson, who recently went on the injured list.

“Haywoode beat out Steve Colter,” John Nash, the Bullets’ general manager, said before the game. “Larry is a similar situation, a non-drafted free agent who made the team in camp.”

The Bullets were trouble from the opening tip. The Lakers went 8:29 before taking a lead, although after that reality asserted itself in a hurry.

The Lakers led by 12 at the half and 15 in the third period before King went off. The Bullets pulled to 75-73 when King threw up an air ball that Harvey Grant caught under the basket and took back up for a layup. King was so hot that when he hit nothing, it worked out.

“He’s had some mighty good nights,” Unseld said. “This was one.

“The big thing, he tries to get everybody else going, not by talking, by doing. For a young team, that’s important.”

The Lakers started the fourth quarter clinging to a 79-74 lead. Teagle made a short jumper, two free throws, a 20-footer and a 16-footer in 5:08 and the Laker lead was 91-81.

He got himself going. For the Lakers, an ambitious team, that was important.

Laker Notes

Vlade Divac had 18 points and 13 rebounds. Coach Mike Dunleavy praised him for a “big, big performance. . . . The doctors told me before that game not to expect much from Sam (Perkins, who has flu). This was one of those nights when we needed something from someone else.”

Bernard King, on his night: “I don’t think of it as carrying the burden. I look at it as my job. But it would be nice not to have to carry that burden every game.” . . . Bullet guard Darrell Walker grabbed a personal-best 17 rebounds. . . . John Nash, the Bullets’ general manager, on Crenshaw High’s John Williams: “He’s continuing to lose weight. The doctors won’t allow him to practice until he gets his weight down. They don’t want him to excessively stress the knee.” Williams underwent major knee surgery last season, reported late and weighed nearly 300 pounds. . . . The Lakers will play the Dallas Mavericks at the Forum Wednesday night. They will play at Golden State Saturday, at home against Indiana Sunday, then make a three-game swing to New York, Cleveland and Chicago.