NBA PLAYOFFS : Couldn’t Plan It Like This : Lakers’ Ride Is Hard to Believe

Rubbing their eyes Monday, the Lakers found they weren’t dreaming. They’re in the playoffs.

Improbable?

“If your magic number is four and (the Houston Rockets’) number is one, that’s real tough odds,” Laker Coach Mike Dunleavy said.

“I said it was 5% only because I wanted to give you guys a nice, round number. I thought that was very high on my part.”

Dunleavy said that whenever he started doubting Laker chances, he would slap himself.

No, he wasn’t black and blue.

“Once or twice,” he said. “Particularly in Portland (last Friday, after losing to the Kings in Sacramento the night before). I thought about it. We had just played two games in two nights. I had to play our guys huge minutes. Normally, I would have given our guys the day off. We’ve played Portland a number of times. We know how we want to play them.

“Then I thought, ‘You know, this is it. We’ve got to make sure our guys stay focused.’ ”

In the end, the Lakers made the playoffs by going 9-7 after Sam Perkins joined Magic Johnson and James Worthy on the injured list.

This is the way it ended, not with a whimper but a bang:

April 9--The Lakers, who once led the Rockets by three games with 11 left, drop half a game behind with six left after losing at the Forum to the San Antonio Spurs minus David Robinson, 102-94.

April 11--The Utah Jazz wins, 93-90, at the Forum, avenging the Laker upset in Salt Lake City two weeks before. Expecting to fall 1 1/2 behind the Rockets, the Lakers are shocked to hear that Houston has lost at home to the 19-58 Dallas Mavericks, who hadn’t won a road game since Christmas.

April 13--After five losses in six games, the Lakers beat Denver at home--but have to rally after blowing a 20-point lead to a team on a 10-game losing streak. “I’m not very happy with this victory,” Dunleavy says.

April 15--The coach doesn’t know what unhappiness is until he watches the Lakers blow a 13-point lead in Denver and lose to the Nuggets for the first time in three years. “A killer loss,” Dunleavy says.

April 16--In Sacramento, the Lakers are outclassed by the Kings, who haven’t beaten them in three years. How low have the Lakers sunk? This isn’t even an upset--the Kings were rated three-point favorites, and Dunleavy says he knew this would be the swing game on this trip. With Houston’s magic number down to one, Dunleavy rates Laker chances at 5%.

April 17--After practice the next day in Portland, Laker coaches and traveling officials gather in a sports bar to watch the Rocket-Maverick rematch on TV.

“Brian Howard . . . Donald Hodge . . . Tracy Moore,” says a Laker, naming the young Mavericks. “Can you believe our season is riding on them?”

The Rockets blow a five-point lead in the final minutes and lose. Gratefully, several Lakers salute the Houston effort by grabbing their throats with both hands.

“Can you believe the Rockets lost to the Mavs?” someone asks.

“That wasn’t exactly the Boston Celtics we lost to the other night in Denver,” says assistant coach Randy Pfund.

Byron Scott, Tony Smith and Sedale Threatt are upstairs playing video games in Chucky Brown’s room. They get the news from Jack Haley, whose wife, Stacey, watches it on TV and does play-by-play of the last minutes over the telephone.

Scott says nobody could believe it. “Some of the guys were going, ‘Nah, nah,’ ” he says.

April 18--The Lakers, 0-4 against the Trail Blazers, beat them, 109-101. Clyde Drexler and Jerome Kersey don’t play, but the game is hard-fought and bitter. Portland’s Mark Bryant flattens Vlade Divac with an elbow to the belly. Terry Porter yells at Divac about elbowing him. Laker assistant coach Bill Bertka yells that there have been elbows all around, prompting Porter to yell at Bertka. Afterward, Danny Ainge walks over to the Laker bench and yells, “I hope we see you (ladies of the evening) next week!”

April 19--Now the Lakers need one more Houston loss, plus a victory over the Clippers. The Clippers were off the night before. The Lakers will play their fifth game in seven days.

The Rockets come through again, losing at home to the Phoenix Suns. The game is on TV sets throughout the Forum, including the scoreboard, under which several Lakers are warming up.

Says Haley: “There is an Easter bunny.”

The Clippers aren’t about to lie down. Coach Larry Brown says they have to stop celebrating. Plus, these are the Lakers and they are the Clippers.

Says a Clipper official: “Our guys have taken a lot of . . . over the years.”

The Clippers rally from 15 down in the first half.

The Lakers rally from nine down in the second.

Threatt’s 14-foot jumper wins it with four seconds left in overtime.

“Our guys have been winners,” Dunleavy says later. “They’ve been winners the whole time here. That was the underlying current through this. Even though they had an excuse, they didn’t want to be losers.”

April 20--Dunleavy says you can’t ever give up.

Someone asks about the Lakers’ chances of winning a championship.

“A couple of breaks, we play real well, I don’t think it’s impossible,” Dunleavy says, laughing.

“If you ask me what the odds are on this one, I’ll have to get a calculator out.”

Laker Notes

The Lakers activated Sam Perkins, but only on the chance that they will last for a month. Perkins isn’t expected to be back until then. “Conference finals,” he said. . . . Said Coach Mike Dunleavy: “I’m telling people in Portland I’m bringing Sam and Earvin (Johnson). Earvin’s flying back from Maui.” . . . Just kidding, Blazermaniacs. . . . Keith Owens was deactivated to make room for Perkins. . . . Stepping up: Terry Teagle, averaging nine points and shooting 43% when Perkins was sidelined, averaged 18 points and shot 52% down the stretch. . . . A.C. Green, averaging 13 points and nine rebounds, improved to 15 and 10.