Magic Is Back for Lakers in Easy Victory : Basketball: Johnson uses small support on injured finger. He scores 12 points and has 15 assists in win over Jazz.

In one of those miracles of modern science or acts of Magic, Earvin Johnson returned with a small cast on his strained right middle finger but without a clue how he would do with it.

Try 12 points and 15 assists in 30 minutes as the Lakers routed the Utah Jazz, 108-85, Wednesday night before 16,980 in the Forum. He isn’t called Magic because he does card tricks.

Johnson will wear the cast for at least a month, so he decided to see if he can play with it.

Of course, those who know him best had all the faith in the world in him.

“Cast?” Utah’s Karl Malone exclaimed. “That was a piece of tape! We knew he was gonna play. He gets paid to, so it’s no big thing.”

Call it a medium-sized thing. Johnson made his first two shots, a left-handed layup, then a right-handed three-pointer. Was he relieved?

“The first time I was open for a three, I said, ‘No, I’m not going to shoot it. I’m going to pass,’ ” Johnson said. “Then it came right back to me so I had to shoot it.”

More to the point, he had eight assists to go with his seven points in the first quarter as the Lakers flew to a 33-22 lead. The Jazz never seriously threatened.

For Johnson, the events were as much of a surprise as they were to anyone.

“Just got me a cast,” he said before the game. “I really won’t know how it’ll be until I go out there.”

The way he figured it, though, anything beat watching on television Tuesday night as the Lakers struggled without him.

“Oh, man,” Johnson said, “I was hollering, screaming.

“Any time I’m out, it tears me up. Because, I knew if I was there--those traps, we’re used to playing Seattle. I’d have known what to do. It just kills you. Tony (Smith) didn’t know.”

This is how it went when he got out there:

The Lakers won the tap and tossed the ball to Johnson. He fumbled the ball on his second dribble.

Then he threw it to Byron Scott, who made a 20-footer for a 2-0 lead and assist No. 1.

On the Lakers’ sixth possession, Johnson drove the lane and made a layup--left-handed.

On their seventh, he made a three-point basket--right-handed.

A smoother-looking Larry Drew, perhaps drawing on the extra minutes he got in the last two games, came in for Johnson with a 10-point lead and left with the Lakers ahead by 13. By halftime, the lead was 17.

Soon after, garbage time began.

“It’s easier when he’s in there,” Vlade Divac said of Johnson. “He is our support and our chief.”

Wednesday, the chief returned.

Laker Notes

Utah Coach Jerry Sloan: “I think the Lakers have one of the best teams I’ve seen this year. I said that at the beginning of the season and I haven’t changed my mind. They struggled a little early in the season, but I knew they were a good team despite the beginning.” . . . It wasn’t back-to-back games on the road--the Lakers are 0-4 on second nights in those--but it was back-to-back. “Our effort was tremendous,” Mike Dunleavy said. It’s the kind of energy we need. . . . We’re at a point we can obviously beat anybody in the league. It’s a matter of becoming more consistent. We’re getting more players involved, and that’s a plus for us. I think our team will get better as the year goes on.” . . . The Laker bench returned too: Terry Teagle had 13 points, shooting six for 10; A.C. Green, 15 points and seven rebounds in 25 minutes; Larry Drew, four assists in 14 minutes; Mychal Thompson, eight points, four rebounds in 12 minutes. . . .

What’s at stake: assuming Portland’s 7 1/2-game lead stands up, the best the Lakers can be is No. 3 in the West because the other division winner must be No. 2. . . . If the Lakers were to finish No. 3, assuming all other teams stay as they are, they would have the home-court advantage against Houston in the first round, then play the San Antonio-Golden State winner before potentially meeting Portland. . . . If Lakers finish No. 4, they would have the home-court advantage over Phoenix, then potentially meet San Antonio and Portland. . . . If they stay No. 5, they would play Phoenix and potentially San Antonio and Portland and have the home-court advantage in none of the series.

The victory avenged the Jazz’s 22-point wipeout at Salt Lake City in the battle of West contenders. . . . The Lakers’ next game: Cleveland here Friday night.