After a While, Lakers Become Lakers to Win

It was a little early in the trip to be road weary--like the first half of the first game--but after the Indiana Pacers ran up a 12-point lead, shooting 81% in one quarter and 72% by intermission, a familiar foe arose to collect its due.

They were the Lakers once more. They got 27 points from Magic Johnson and 23 each from Byron Scott, James Worthy and Sam Perkins and ran away from the Pacers in Monday night’s score-a-thon, 120-114.

Who are these guys? A team in transition? A great-team-in-training? Thin? Deep enough?

They were all those things Monday, but in the end they were winners for the seventh game in a row and 12th in 14.

“They’re playing better,” said the Pacers’ Reggie Miller, ever forthright. “They’re not like the team of ‘85, ‘86, ’87 . . . or ’88. But I’ve always said that any time you have Magic Johnson out there, you always have a chance. He’s the one who kicked their butts in that third quarter and got them going.”

Talk about your mutual admiration societies. . . .

Johnson spoke of going against Miller in the summer, of watching him grow as a player and a person since his tempestuous UCLA days. They had a warm, arm-in-arm, laughing conversation on the floor before the second half.

And then, when Miller missed a layup and punched the ball out of bounds, Johnson quickly pointed it out to an official, who hit Miller with a technical foul, which Johnson took and made.

“Of course,” Johnson said. “I’m out there to win. He understands that.”

Up to about 9 p.m., EST, the game was your basic Laker nightmare, complete with bad defense, Terry Teagle bricks and so little help from the bench that Johnson was rested for a grand total of 2:32. During that time, Tony Smith played, the Pacers pressed and the Lakers went from five points behind to 10.

At the half, the Lakers trailed, 72-63. It wasn’t worse because of the brilliance of Scott, who had scored 15 points and was assigned to cover Miller.

The Pacers had scored 117 points and whizzed past the Utah Jazz. The Lakers watched the videotape but failed to integrate the lesson.

What was a poor coach to say?

“Hot is one thing,” Mike Dunleavy said, “72% is something else. Seventy-two percent is we’re doing something wrong. We weren’t getting in their face, stepping up and giving them bad shots--especially the guys like LaSalle Thompson and the bench guys like (George) McCloud. We were playing soft on them.

“If we came out and got in their face, they’d start missing their shots. That’s what happened.”

The Lakers blasted the Pacers with a 34-18 third quarter and grabbed a 97-90 lead. Now there was only one other problem: the bench and, in particular, the reserve guards. At that point, Johnson, Scott, Worthy and Perkins had 87 of 97 Laker points.

Smith and Teagle went back in. Teagle had started the night 0 for 3 and was clearly thinking about it. On another open 15-footer, he went up, thought better of it, tried to pass and lost the ball.

What could you expect of him this night? How about three consecutive 18-foot jump shots to start the fourth quarter?

The Lakers took a 105-94 lead and were never seriously threatened.

Late in the game, noted Pacer public speaker Chuck Person engaged Johnson in an argument across the free-throw lane that cost each a technical foul, but the status quo remained. Johnson’s Lakers are 11-1 in Indianapolis. Best to mind your manners around your betters.

Laker Notes

How to tell it’s not your night: In the first half, Reggie Miller dunked a rebound but it was ruled goaltending. In the second half, right after getting his technical, he dunked another rebound and glared at official Tommie Wood as if to ask, “Was that one OK?” Then he turned to go downcourt--and saw Jack Madden wave it off, ruling Miller had hung on the rim first. . . . How to tell it’s not your night, part two: Vlade Divac took three rebounds and Rik Smits outscored him, 14-2. . . . Miller complained the officiating distracted the Pacers. Said Magic Johnson: “The referees didn’t put the ball in the basket. We did.” . . . Johnson, on his argument with Chuck Person: “Just talking. Chuck’s always talking, so it’s nothing.”