Lakers Aren’t Kidding

They sold out Reunion Arena on Friday night, a crowd of 17,502, about 900 above the Dallas Mavericks’ average, drawn by the chance to see Magic Johnson here for the first time since Feb. 21, 1991.

Except Johnson didn’t play, sidelined for the second game in a row by a strained calf muscle. So they cheered his short walk from the locker room to the bench in street clothes, settled in for the night, then found the Mavericks wouldn’t be playing much either.

Talk about being shortchanged. The game itself barely lasted until halftime before the Lakers took over and rolled to an easy 114-88 victory, their eighth in a row overall and seventh consecutive on the road, as Cedric Ceballos scored 27 points and three teammates contributed double-doubles.

Refunds will not be provided, merely excuses.

The Mavericks shot 35.5% in their most lopsided loss of the season. Their front line got steamrollered on most every front, surrendering the 27 to Ceballos, 20 points and 18 rebounds to Vlade Divac and 20 points and 11 rebounds to Elden Campbell. They may have had the benefit of Jason Kidd’s sixth triple-double of the season, but he was outplayed by Nick Van Exel, who countered with 15 points, 10 assists and no turnovers.

“I thought they played magnificent basketball,” Coach Del Harris said of his Lakers. “It was fun for me just watching and being part of the team.”

The team has won 12 of the last 13 and 16 of 18 and still gets to play Vancouver, Washington and Sacramento within the next six games.

Can the team still play better?

Scary as it may be for a conference that has already seen the emergence of a fifth contender for the Western title, the Lakers are in the midst of their longest winning streak since November of 1991 and have yet to hit stride. Meanwhile, 20-something teams would kill for a transition period like this.

“I think we can still turn it up,” Van Exel said. “We’re still getting familiar with each other. Everybody’s learning their roles now. We can still get better.”

Said Harris: “We’re still growing with Earvin. And we do have a young team. So I would hope we would improve.”

Maybe part of the process started Friday, a game that scared Harris. The logic was at least understandable, if, as it turned out, unfounded: The Lakers had just beaten the Mavericks a week earlier at the Forum and might be looking ahead to what they considered a real test, tonight at Houston. Besides, this was on the road and without Johnson, and Dallas had gotten starting center Lorenzo Williams back from the injured list in the meantime.

His players were so worried they built a 10-point lead by the end of the first quarter and went up by 13 at halftime, with Divac already only one rebound away from his double-double. They needed only about the first five minutes of the third quarter to end what little suspense remained, moving ahead by 22 points and eventually 26 with 1:21 left in the quarter.

The game was all but over then. But to the Lakers, they might have been warming up.

“We can get more aggressive in certain situations,” Ceballos said. “We can dominate more.”

Once they start playing well.

*

Laker Notes

Thursday was relatively quiet for the Lakers in the final hours heading up to the trade deadline, but only after they made several attempts to acquire another shooter, preferably one who could play behind Cedric Ceballos at small forward. “We talked to a lot of teams,” Executive Vice President Jerry West said. “But nothing serious.” Among others, they made a run at Cleveland’s Dan Majerle, an erratic but capable three-point weapon, and called Toronto about former UCLA star Tracy Murray. Any marginal player who was not headed toward free agency this summer was eliminated from consideration because the Lakers have no desire to dip into the projected $9 million of salary cap room. . . . Jason Kidd has six triple-doubles to lead the league, but this was hardly an overwhelming showing. The all-star guard made only eight of 26 shots while piling up the 17 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds. He’s shooting 38.6% for the season. . . . This was the 17th double-double for Elden Campbell, his career best, with 30 games to play. . . . Vlade Divac had one blocked shot, giving him 800 for his career. Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, with 2,694, has recorded more as a Laker.