Lakers Are Resembling Themselves

Everybody’s favorite monster movie--”Magic Johnson Meets Michael Jordan”--now returns by popular demand to an arena near you. Mag and Mike and their playmates can be seen bouncing basketballs today on one of those occasions that make the Forum truly Fabulous.

The best thing about today’s matinee is that Johnson and Jordan are more than just the two superest superstars in the game.

They’re two of the few superstars left playing.

Larry Bird is hurt. Akeem Olajuwon is hurt. Isiah Thomas is hurt. Charles Barkley and James Worthy have been hurt. You know the NBA is in strange shape when one of the healthiest guys in the league is Bernard King.

This season already has been a weird one. Who would have suspected that as of February, the team with the best record in the Eastern Conference would be the Boston Celtics? Or that the Lakers’ record would be better than the Eastern Conference’s best?

And who would have figured that Dominique Wilkins would finally turn into an unselfish team player for the Atlanta Hawks? Or that the Washington Bullets would have the same record as the New York Knicks? Or that the Golden State Warriors would be 11 games ahead of the Clippers in their division? Or that the Milwaukee Bucks would have the same number of victories as the Phoenix Suns?

Even with a lot of people already conceding the next NBA championship to the Portland Trail Blazers, the league has rarely been more unpredictable.

I mean, how many people really thought that the next NBA champions could turn out to be . . .

. . . the Lakers?

Fooling every skeptic, the Lakers have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that there is Life Beyond Pat Riley. Remember all the angry reaction to the first week or two of the season, when the Lakers were left for dead and Mike Dunleavy’s name was being bandied about with Mike Shanahan’s by the “in over his head” faction?

Well, Dunleavy has done well enough to be a coach-of-the-year candidate. And Earvin Johnson, more than ever, has demonstrated that he is the man who runs things around here, in more ways than one.

Not only do the Lakers take a 14-game winning streak into today’s game against the Bulls, but they won three in a row without Worthy, who has had what you might generously call a rough season. With Worthy injured, the Lakers looked to a bench that did not, in many eyes, appear to be all that deep. Turned out there was gold to be found there.

The best news was that Mychal Thompson, a total pro, went bang-bang-bang for 17, 18 and 19 points, coming off the bench, as the Lakers continued to knock opponents’ socks off.

And the rest of the Laker irregulars?

Well, Vlade Divac apparently was not quite washed up, after a false start. Things piled up on Divac to the point that he even reportedly was thinking of packing his bags and returning next season to his native Yugoslavia, a report he has since denied. The Lakers hope he stays. So do those who follow them.

Terry Teagle, meanwhile, was a hired gun brought to town with a license to shoot. And shoot he has, as erratically as any player the Lakers have ever had. Teagle doesn’t get hot quarter by quarter. He gets hot week by week. One week, he can’t miss. Next week, he can’t touch iron. But if nothing else, Eagle Eye Teagle has been fun to watch.

And then the Lakers uncovered young Tony Smith, who is turning out to be not a bad little player at all. Those who wondered if Dunleavy would have any depth at guard have become increasingly pleased with Smith, who has come on strong.

But there is more to the Lakers this season than Earvin Johnson and a decent bench.

I think people around the league have been slow to realize that the flamboyant franchise once famed for “Showtime” has evolved into one of the finest defensive teams in basketball. Last we looked, only the Detroit Pistons were giving up fewer points a game than the Lakers. They were the only NBA teams whose opponents were averaging under 100 points a night.

And don’t forget, this is after the Lakers parted company with one of the great defensive players ever, Michael Cooper.

Dunleavy is pleased at the results he is getting, particularly, as Magic recently mentioned: “Defense is what he’s been stressing to us since the very first day.”

That will be one of the appeals of seeing the Lakers come face to face with Jordan in his only Inglewood appearance of the season.

Much of the fun of watching the Chicago Bulls play is seeing whether Jordan will pop for 30 or 35. Part of today’s fun will be to see whether the Laker defense lets Michael have his points while trying to stop everybody else, or cracks down to keep Jordan to 20 or 25.

These teams are second in their divisions to the teams that met in last year’s NBA finals, Detroit and Portland. These teams--the Bulls and the Lakers--could meet in this year’s NBA finals, because it’s turning out to be that strange a season.