Warriors Play One for Keeps, 118-111 : Pro basketball: Golden State, battling for No. 7 playoff spot, gets past the Lakers, who try giving their starters some rest.

When the game that didn’t matter to the Lakers suddenly started to matter, you didn’t need a program to know the players. That was four-fifths of the starting lineup back on the Oakland Coliseum Arena court late in Wednesday night’s game against the Golden State Warriors.

It mattered enough that Laker Coach Mike Dunleavy unchained the A team from the bench when things got interesting. He watched his team lose a chance for a sixth 60-victory season in seven tries, thanks to a 118-111 defeat, but still came away pleased. Health and happiness were one this night.

“I don’t think of it as a disappointment,” said Magic Johnson, who was five for 15 from the field but still finished with 14 points and 15 assists in 33 minutes.

“We wanted to win 60, but at the same time, we’re a lock for No. 2 (in the Pacific Division). It’s a situation where you either go all out, play hard and go for 60, or try to get some guys some rest.”

The Lakers (57-23) chose the latter, as expected. Dunleavy was shooting for something in the range of a 35-minute cap for his starters and only James Worthy, with 37, broke it. Sam Perkins went 34, Byron Scott 32, Vlade Divac 17 and no one got hurt, so consider it mission accomplished.

The loss?

“I’ve said before that I wanted to get some of the other guys significant playing time even if it cost us one or two wins,” Dunleavy said. “And tonight may have been one of those nights.”

Johnson didn’t appear in the fourth quarter until 6:21 remained, following Worthy onto the floor by about a minute. Not coincidentally, that’s when the Lakers charged back.

Trailing 108-98 with 6:50 remaining, they drew within 114-111 on Perkins’ free throw with 46.4 seconds to play. But from there, Golden State, which received 29 points from Chris Mullin and 21 points and 11 rebounds from Mitch Richmond, made four of five free throws the rest of the way to close the door.

While the Laker strategy was energy conservation, as it figures to be Saturday at Utah and Sunday against Seattle at the Forum to end the regular season, Golden State had a much different approach. After three games of limited duty for the big three--Tim Hardaway played 27 minutes, Mullin 25 and Richmond 21 four nights earlier against Dallas--the Warriors adopted a playoff posture.

They had a hard practice Tuesday, followed by a promise from Coach Don Nelson that the final three games will be played as keepers. Part of the reason is that the Warriors are trying to fight off the Seattle SuperSonics for the No. 7 Western Conference playoff spot, the reward of which will be a first-round matchup against the Midwest Division champion instead of the Portland Trail Blazers; part is simply establishing the proper attitude and approach.

Both teams kept to the script from the start, the Lakers shuttling in reserves and the Warriors leaving nothing to chance and building 10-point leads on two occasions in the first half.

After 5 1/2 minutes, Elden Campbell replaced Perkins, and Mychal Thompson was sent in for Divac 71 seconds later. Tony Smith had replaced Johnson before the first quarter ended.

Laker Notes

Magic Johnson needs eight assists to set a career high for a season, the previous best being 988 in 1988-89. . . . Elden Campbell was the biggest benefactor of the plan to get lesser-played players some time, finishing with 11 points on five-of-five shooting, four rebounds and three blocked shots in 22 minutes. “One thing I wanted to do was play Elden Campbell significant minutes with some of the starters,” Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “I thought he did a nice job defensively, changing some shots and hitting the boards, so I was pleased with that.”