Lakers Go to Perkins, Perkins Goes to Work : Pro basketball: He scores 25 points on 12-of-14 shooting in 118-93 victory over Bullets as L.A. improves record to 11-6. Divac has 15 points, 12 rebounds and seven blocks.

What accounts for the rise from unassuming role player to the star you have before you now?

“I don’t know, shoot,” Sam Perkins said after making 12 of 14 shots and scoring 25 points in the Lakers’ 118-93 rout of the Washington Bullets in the Forum on Friday night.

“I’m just out there trying to play. We have a lot of mental breakdowns and if somebody can step up, I’m happy to do it. I’d like to do it every night, but Murphy’s Law happens.”

More like Perkins’ Law, which states that no matter how well he does, next game the ball will go to someone else.

However, Randy Pfund’s Law states that Perkins is going to be saddled up and ridden hard.

“It’s becoming more apparent every day how good a player Sam Perkins is,” said Pfund, the Laker coach. “Sam is really evolving into a guy for us who’s almost always a go-to guy. Tonight they tried several different people against him and they couldn’t seem to get a good matchup.

“I said a few days ago it’s easy to take Sam Perkins for granted. I’m trying to make sure I don’t take him for granted.”

The Lakers trailed only at 2-0, opened a 19-point lead before the half and cruised in. After their 2-3 start, they are 11-6.

The Bullets came into the night off Thursday’s 112-96 pasting at Utah and Coach Wes Unseld was less than euphoric.

“It looks like you guys finally have a good young player at every position,” someone said before Friday’s game.

“That’s what everybody says,” Unseld said. “I indeed hope it’s true.”

And what about rookie Tom Gugliotta, who has been called the new Larry Bird?

“I tell him Big Bird is more like it,” Unseld said.

Gugliotta scored 14 points on six-for-19 shooting.

Indeed, it was a washed-out looking Bullet team that dragged through the first quarter. The Lakers, who had shot 64% in their last game, stayed red hot. Perkins, attacking shot-blocker Pervis Ellison to pin him down, made all six of his shots: a 10-foot hook, a 12-footer, a layup on a drive, a reverse layup, another layup and finally a driving hook shot.

With 4:04 left in the quarter, the Lakers had made 13 of their 16 shots and were in the process of building a 30-15 lead.

The Laker lead grew to 19 late in the second quarter . . . and shrunk to 79-70 late in the third, but that was as close as the Bullets got.

Seven Lakers scored in double figures. Vlade Divac had 15 points, 12 rebounds and a career-high seven blocked shots.

“We got our butts beat,” Unseld said. “We’re the lightest team in the league. We just can’t defend the post. We’ve always had trouble defending the post. We double, we rotate. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”

Laker Notes

For the seventh time in the last eight home games, the Lakers were playing a team that was playing the second night of back-to-back games. They are 6-1 in those games, losing only to the New Jersey Nets. . . . Former Laker coach Mike Dunleavy, due here Sunday with his Milwaukee Bucks, scouted ahead personally, even if it meant catching a 6 a.m. flight to Salt Lake City, where his team plays tonight. “I came because it was L.A. I wanted to see the team play,” Dunleavy said. “I had a lot of fun at Portland (where the Bucks lost Monday). We pressed them for 48 minutes. Coming off the court, I was getting a lot of grief. I told ‘em, ‘You guys got to play the Lakers tomorrow night.’ ” The next night the Lakers blitzed the Trail Blazers, 124-111.

Don MacLean, the ex-Bruin, ex-Piston and ex-Clipper, made his Forum debut as a pro with 5:19 left in the game and hit an 18-footer from the baseline 23 seconds later. He missed his next two shots and finished with two points. MacLean was drafted by Detroit, then traded twice before he suited up. “I don’t think about it now,” he said. “Obviously I would have liked to play here, but when it didn’t work out, I put it behind me as soon as I could.”