He Burns Them on Both Ends : Lakers: Worthy not only scores 36 points, he holds Golden State’s Mullin to 13.

It was vintage James Worthy at both ends of the court.

Worthy scored 36 points, four under his playoff best, to propel the Lakers to a 115-112 victory over the Golden State Warriors Friday night at the Oakland Coliseum.

Worthy also did a good job of containing Warrior guard Chris Mullin as the Lakers took a 2-1 series lead in their NBA Western Conference semifinal series.

“The guy (Mullin) went off on us last game,” Laker Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “We put Sam Perkins on him at the beginning of the last game, but Chris is just a great player and doesn’t need a lot of room to get a shot off. I thought it would be better to put James on him to deny the ball. James knew what his job was.”

And Worthy did his job to near perfection.

Mullin, who was coming off a career-high of 41 points in the Warriors’ 125-124 victory over the Lakers Wednesday night, had only 13 points. After sinking 16 of 21 shots in Game 2, Mullin made four of 14 shots under constant pressure from Worthy.

“I thought James played excellent defense,” Mullin said. “He didn’t give me much room to work with. He can guard anyone. But I missed some open ones.”

Worthy said he tried to apply constant defensive pressure on Mullin.

“I just tried to stay at home on him,” Worthy said. “He only needs a few inches to get his shot off, and I was just trying to contain him and make him take a tough shot. You can’t give him any air space. He hit 16 shots the other night and only two of them were drives.

“He’s a great ballplayer who depends on out-thinking you, and I just tried to be there. If you can direct him one way you try to do that, if you know you have help over there, but basically I just tried to play him straight and hoped he wasn’t unconscious.”

Worthy’s defense impressed Warrior Coach Don Nelson.

“He did a terrific job on both ends of the court,” Nelson said. “He was a dominant offensive player who had to exert a lot of energy defensively. Worthy held Mullin one on one, and when we ran Mullin off a screen they switched and somebody else did a terrific job.”

Although Worthy used a lot of energy while guarding Mullin, it didn’t seem to affect his offense--he made 17 of 26 shots. A force on the low post, Worthy scored 16 points in the first half as the Lakers took a 57-50 lead. He added 20 points in the second half.

“In most cases defensive adrenaline usually carries over to the offensive end, and I think that’s what happened tonight for me,” Worthy said. “I just tried to be as focused as I could and it just carried over.”

After shooting only 39% when the Lakers were eliminated by the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference semifinals last season, Worthy is flourishing in the playoffs this season, averaging 22.6 points while shooting 42.7%.

With the Lakers clinging to a 113-112 lead, Worthy set up teammate Byron Scott for a 15-foot jump shot with 20 seconds remaining to give the Lakers a three-point margin.

“Any time I get trapped in the middle over the years I always try to look to the corner where Byron is, because his man has usually come over to make help on me,” Worthy said. “It’s like clockwork. Once I get it I just look out of the corner of my eye and there he is.”