Lakers Have Warriors Painted Into a Corner : NBA playoffs: They utilize height advantage for a 126-116 victory in series opener. Mullin sits with sprained knee.

Giving new meaning to the term “uphill battle,” the brave little Golden State Warriors spent Sunday in the paint with the Lakers with predictable results:

Lakers 126, Warriors 116, before 17,505 in the Forum for a 1-0 series lead.

The Lakers--three inches a man taller--scored 86 points inside the free-throw lane by unofficial count.

By anyone’s reckoning, it was a hard night for the visitors.

“They have four mismatches every time down the court,” Warrior Coach Don Nelson said.

“Mike (Dunleavy) just picks one out . . . but there are four whenever he wants.”

Nelson counts his blessing in threes, the trio of Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin. In the Bay Area, they’re known as Run TMC--Tim, Mitch and Chris, get it?--but Sunday Nelson was down to Run TM. Mullin’s sprained right knee still hurt and he didn’t dress.

It didn’t take a prophet to know the Warriors were in trouble. Someone told Nelson before the game this would give him another chance to pull a rabbit out of the hat.

Replied Nelson: “My hat’s getting empty.”

Trouble materialized promptly in the anticipated manner.

The Lakers took an early 12-point lead, saw the Warriors hanging within 66-63 in the third quarter, then put them away, taking a 19-point lead and coasting in. Magic Johnson had a triple-double in three quarters, requiring 31 minutes to get 21 points, 17 assists and 10 rebounds.

“Obviously, a tough game from the standpoint of matchup-wise for us,” Dunleavy said later, keeping a straight face.

Wasn’t it tougher for the Warriors?

“I didn’t notice,” Dunleavy said, laughing.

“We’re going to do what we do best,” Johnson said. “They’re going to do what they do best. They shoot the ball. They shot 53% from the outside.

“We shot 53% from the inside.”

The Lakers had a post game through the ‘80s with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy and later Johnson. With the addition of Sam Perkins, another low-post ace, and the arrival of Dunleavy preaching half-court execution, they evolved into the team that gave the Warriors cricks in their necks Sunday.

For his part, Nelson chose to fake double-teams when a Laker posted up and played them one-on-one.

“Yeah, we did,” Nelson said. “The Lakers are also very good at baiting you into double-teams and finding the open man. Sometimes the best coaching is not doing a whole lot.

“I guess that’s why we play more than one game, so we can make adjustments.”

Let’s just say that for Nelson, there was no easy way out. The Warriors did enough helping on defense that Byron Scott was able to score 27 points from the perimeter, hitting all five of his three-point tries.

What was there left but admiration?

“The Lakers are a lot like the old Celtics (of the 1980s),” Nelson said. “Everybody said ‘running Celtics’ all the time. They didn’t run for eight years. They were strictly a half-court team. This is a half-court team and I commend them.

“But the excitement, all the great plays they used to make in the open court, they’re gone. But they’re winning. That what it’s all about if I’m not mistaken.”

He isn’t. By mid-fourth quarter, Nelson had taken his seat and about 10,000 Laker fans had fled theirs, happily.

“I think we can play better,” Nelson said. “Whether that’s good enough to beat the Lakers, I don’t know.”

The series adjourns for two days and resumes Wednesday, by which time Mullin may return and Nelson will certainly have had time to rummage around in his hat.

Laker Notes

The Warriors have lost 15 of 16 in the Forum and 11 playoff games in a row here since 1969. . . . Magic Johnson’s right hamstring tightened in the third period. Trainer Gary Vitti stretched it during a timeout and Mike Dunleavy was able to give Johnson most of the fourth quarter off. Johnson said he could have gone back in. . . . Tim Hardaway went 46 minutes and scored 33 points to lead everyone. Don Nelson called him “the only flower in the bouquet.”

Mario Elie, cut by the Lakers in camp, started in Mullin’s place and had a big game, making nine of 10 shots for 21 points. . . . Johnson on the absence of Chris Mullin: “You take one of their big three out and somebody has to make up the slack. That’s 25 points you’ve got to get somewhere else.”

It had to happen: Nelson started a three-guard lineup, used one with four guards and finally went for broke, using five--Hardaway, Elie, Mitch Richmond, Sarunas Marciulionis and Vincent Askew--with the Lakers far ahead in the fourth quarter.