NBA PLAYOFFS : Demands Cheerfully Satisfied

It is the last quarter of the last Laker game of the season and James Worthy is asking for the basketball.

“Demanding it,” says Byron Scott.

Demanding it?

“De- man- ding it,” he says.

Eight minutes left. Lakers down by seven. Worthy, a jump shot. Worthy, from the baseline. Lakers now down three. Timeout, Phoenix. Five minutes left.

Worthy towels off, returns to the floor, waves for the ball, shoots it from 17 feet and scores. Kevin Johnson answers for Phoenix. Worthy waves at A.C. Green, who gives him the ball. Worthy shoots a three-pointer. Nothing but net. Score now 87-87.

Scott says you demanded the ball.

“That’s true,” Worthy says.

How come?

“It’s my nature,” he says.

Under 2 1/2 minutes now. Score still tied. Sir Charles Barkley dunks. Worthy waves for the ball. Sedale Threatt feeds it to him. Worthy goes straight up, with Dan Majerle of the Suns draped all over him. Nothing but net. Score tied again, 91-91, with 2:13 to go.

Scott: “That’s a James Worthy I’m real familiar with. When he gets in that mode, I don’t know how you stop him.”

Worthy: “It felt good. It felt like old times. I felt like I had to continue to shoot the ball. Once I hit a couple, I wanted to keep knocking them down.”

The Lakers pull ahead. Elden Campbell goes airborne to rebound a miss by Threatt and he slams it home. Then Threatt finds a back door to the basket and lays one in. Lakers, 95-91. Sixty-eight seconds to go. Sixty-eight seconds to Round 2 of the playoffs.

The Suns stare at the clock. They turn to Sir Charles.

The Lakers have turned back the clock. They have Lord Byron and King James.

Barkley aims and fires from the corner. Bull’s-eye. Fifty seconds left. Phoenix needs two more. Majerle fades away from 17 feet and gets them the points. Thirteen seconds left. Timeout, Lakers.

Scott: “We wanted to break off James or Sedale and get them the ball.”

Worthy: “We wanted to post up Vlade (Divac) and get him the ball.”

It is the last second of the last quarter of the last Laker game of the season and of perhaps the last Laker game of Byron Scott’s life, but not one of these options are open to him. He has the ball. He cannot get it to James or Sedale. He cannot find Vlade. He has three things in his face--a hoop, a shot clock and Danny Ainge.

Scott shoots.

A trip to San Antonio hangs in the balance. The end of the Phoenix Suns is in the air. The ball must travel about 22 feet. It travels 21. Scott’s shot clanks off the front of the rim. The Lakers and Suns will play a five-minute overtime period. The Lakers will lose.

Scott: “I wasn’t an option at all. There was nothing else to do but shoot it. I looked everywhere for James.”

Worthy: “I wanted it. Oh, I wanted it so much.”

Scott: “As soon as it left my hand, I said: ‘No, no, no, it’s short, it’s short.’ Ainge reached up and got me on the palm, right here--smack! The ball just never had a chance.”

It could have been the perfect Laker ending.

“No,” Scott said. “The perfect ending would have been for me to make the last shot against San Antonio, then the last shot against Houston or Seattle, and so on.”

“The perfect ending?” Worthy asked. “You’re right, it would have been. For Byron to make the shot, or for me to make the shot, either way, it would have been nice. But another perfect ending would have been if Dan Majerle never got off that shot.”

It was the last look back on the last day of the season and the captains of the Lakers were looking back with satisfaction and frustration and pride.

They had lost to Phoenix in a game that was as good as it gets, a game that rocked back and forth and rocked the America West Arena, a game that amazed a national TV audience and had had broadcaster Dick Enberg calling it “one of the most contentious in NBA history,” had Quinn Buckner calling it “the best basketball game I’ve seen in a very, very long time.”

It was the end of the line for the Lakers and perhaps the end for Scott, who played his college ball here, who played 10 seasons with the Lakers and now said: “For us to play this way against the best team in the league, it makes you proud to be an old Laker and it’s a source of pride for these young Lakers, something they can build on, something they can remember forever.”

For Worthy, it represented this: “It was everything Laker basketball has always been about. And it was special for me personally. I can’t play 48 minutes any more. The best I can be is a Kevin McHale or a Tom Chambers who helps out best he can. But for at least one day, for today, it was like turning back the hands of time.”

The Lakers lost. They know they lost.

“But that was one great game of basketball,” Scott said.

“I was as proud of this team today as I’ve been proud of Laker teams in the past,” Worthy said.

Lord Byron. King James.

Together, one last time.