Lakers Send Off Rockets as Magic Takes Control : NBA playoffs: Johnson scores 38 points, 24 in second half, as L.A. wins, 94-90, to complete sweep of the series.

Motherhood took one in the neck.

Houston’s Don Chaney promised his mother, Gladys, who lives on Ruthelen Street in Inglewood, he’d be back, but it’ll have to be next season. The one and only Earvin Johnson Jr. did his Magic act and the Lakers beat the Rockets, 94-90, Tuesday night at the Summit, sweeping the best-of-five series, 3-0.

Johnson, shooting a discreet 36% in the series, scored 38 points, 24 in the second half, leading the Lakers from 10 down while Chaney fretted on the sideline.

“I told our guys, ‘Magic’s going to try to take over the game, we’ve got to do a job on him,’ ” Chaney said.

“We could never harness the guy. We got a chance to get the ball out of his hands a couple of times, but it’s hard to get the ball out of his hands.”

Said a delighted Johnson: “I guess I’m not too old yet where they’re going to throw me out of the league.”

Thus the Rockets, alleged to be “the team nobody wants to meet in the playoffs” passed into oblivion at warp speed.

This time the Rockets departed without a complaint about late baskets--Byron Scott, who had hit two shots all night, made a 17-footer to tie it with 54 seconds left and a 19-footer to put the Lakers up to stay with 16 seconds remaining--but with a mistake to remember.

Trailing 90-88 with 16 seconds left, Otis Thorpe couldn’t inbound the ball.

Worse, Thorpe didn’t count, called time out late and turned the ball over.

“I didn’t have time to count,” Thorpe said. “I just had the feel. When you’ve been around the game so much, you have a feel.

“I looked at my three options. Kenny (Smith) was the first option (Scott cut him off). I looked at Dream (Hakeem Olajuwon, denied by Vlade Divac). I looked cross court. Then I looked at the official and . . .

“I saw something I didn’t want to see.”

That feel must have run a millisecond too long.

“If you’re inbounding the ball,” Chaney said, “you count to yourself ‘One thousand-one, one thousand-two, one thousand-three.’ At three-and-a-half, you call time out.

“I think he was expecting our guys to break to the ball. Nobody broke.”

Summer vacations are made of misunderstandings like that.

For the first half, the Rockets were kicking and the series looked as if it were going to live up to predictions and run four . . . or five . . . games, by which time the winners might be limping into the next round.

The Rockets led by 10 in the second quarter, by 46-39 at the half, at which time Johnson had 14 points, James Worthy 16 and the rest of the franchise had chipped in nine. Neither off-guard, Scott or Terry Teagle, had scored. The Lakers had been outrebounded, 24-17. Aside from that, their prospects seemed rosy.

Being Johnson’s employer means you never have to say good-night early.

Given an opportunity, he decided to take over.

The Rockets furnished the opportunity. Tiring of double-teaming Johnson and letting the Lakers make seven three-pointers, as in Game 2, they tried playing him one on one with Vernon Maxwell. Johnson barely warmed up in Games 1 and 2 but took Maxwell into the low post and obliterated him.

“It’s death,” Scott said of the single coverage.

“Earvin could back him (Maxwell) down. He could spin. He could do whatever he wanted.”

Did the word stupid apply?

“I think it was very dangerous,” Scott said, choosing the path of diplomacy. “I wouldn’t advise it.”

Johnson scored 16 points in the third quarter and the Lakers took the lead. Mike Dunleavy gave Johnson credit for leading a rally that was so quick, it didn’t drain everyone for the fourth quarter.

That fourth quarter, like the first two in this series, went to the Lakers.

With 2:35 left, Johnson’s layup in traffic put the Lakers up, 84-81. But Johnson turned the ball over on consecutive possessions. On the second, the Rockets ran a fast break, Thorpe passing the ball back to a trailing Maxwell for a three-point attempt. Bingo! Tie score.

A moment later, Smith made a 20-footer over Scott and the Rockets led, 86-84.

In the last 1:35, the Lakers twice had to score to tie . . . and did.

The first time, the Rockets triple-teamed Johnson and got the ball out of his hands, all right. It went to Sam Perkins, who sensed the play had broken down, put up an 18-footer and made it at 1:19.

Then Scott, two for eight to that point, knocked in a 17-footer with 54 seconds left.

At the defensive end, Smith missed a 19-footer, contested by Scott, hardly the best shot the Rockets could have taken.

At the other end, a double-teamed Johnson pitched the ball to Worthy, who found Scott, whose 19-footer gave the Lakers the rest of the week off.

That and Thorpe’s little boo-boo.

“Nobody wanted to play them,” Johnson said of the Rockets. “I tell you what, anyone else would have been in big trouble.”

To the Lakers go the spoils: at least four days off.

The Rockets start their summer, as sure as you can say 1-2-3-4-5.

Laker Notes

The Lakers will play the San Antonio-Golden State winner, starting Sunday or Tuesday. . . . Vlade Divac’s series: 31 rebounds, nine fouls, his finest moment as a Laker.