They Make Their Point Without Many

Next Friday is the 13th anniversary of the highest-scoring NBA game of all time. Isiah Thomas scored 47 points, John Long 41 and Kelly Tripucka 35 as the Detroit Pistons defeated the Denver Nuggets, 186-184, in triple overtime. Kiki Vandeweghe scored 51 points and Alex English 49 for the Nuggets.

Now, let’s give a big L.A. welcome to the Orlando Magic.

They are in town tonight, two days after scoring 57 points against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Not 57 points by halftime . . . 57 points in the whole bloody game. I know they miss Penny Hardaway, but a team led by Li’l Penny, the puppet, should be able to score more than 57 points.

Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 in one game.

And 78 in another. And 73 in another (twice). And 72 in another.

Elgin Baylor once scored 71.

David Robinson did too.

Rick Barry scored 57 by himself at Madison Square Garden one night . . . as an NBA rookie.

I don’t even want to discuss Michael Jordan. He could score 57 against Cleveland while carrying his golf clubs.

Wednesday night’s game at the O-rena--the name of which suddenly took on new meaning--in Orlando featured an O-rrible performance, the likes of which hasn’t been seen in the NBA since shorts were short. Fifty-seven points. Shaquille O’Neal could score 57 points all by himself, just by shooting 150 free throws.

We had circled today’s date on our calendar, back when Shaq decided to leave Walt Disney World for Disneyland permanently. Tonight’s game marks the only appearance by the Orlando team in Inglewood, and bad blood figured to be boiling by the time those Penny-pinchers got to L.A.

Not so.

For one thing, today’s NBA players don’t believe in grudges, particularly since most know that $120 million would have had them reserving the next one-way ticket to LAX themselves. You throw nearly one-eighth of a billion dollars at somebody, he could become “Laker guard Penny Hardaway” just as quickly as he could become “Laker center Shaquille O’Neal,” believe me.

Also, time marches on. The fans in Florida really don’t miss Shaq all that much. I think if the Orlando Sentinel took a poll--and, man, that Orlando Sentinel really loves to take polls--the result would be: Let Shaq Go, 75%; Give Shaq What He Wants, 20%; Keep Shaq, Send the Sentinel to L.A., 5%.

Besides, the Magic still had high hopes.

They still had Hardaway. They still had Nick Anderson, Dennis Scott, Horace Grant and some other fine backup artists of Rapmaster Shaq. And, as soon as this season began, they more or less stole Rony Seikaly from the Golden State Warriors, who sell off their good players faster than Girl Scouts sell cookies.

I thought Orlando might do OK.

However, if the NBA playoffs started next week, the Magic would be fighting for the table scraps of the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff spot with those two towers of power, the Charlotte Hornets and Milwaukee Bucks, for the right to open the playoffs against the Chicago Bulls at the Jo-rena.

As for the 57 points, well, let’s just say Coach Brian Hill was a little short-handed. Hey, forget about Shaq; he didn’t have Hardaway, Anderson or Scott out there against the Cavs. It was sort of the Cavs against the Cav-Nots.

I looked in the box score, just to make sure Orlando used five players.

Yep, they used nine.

Gerald Wilkins was the only one who scored as many as 10 points. Gerald scored 10 points. Gerald did this without benefit of a single free throw, otherwise he might have gone hog-wild and scored 11 points.

Horace Grant played 39 minutes and scored eight points, which might make it time to get that prescription checked at Elton John Eyeglasses for Men.

Brian Shaw also played 39 minutes. But neither he, Grant nor Wilkins went to the free-throw line once, which means either they weren’t very aggressive or Cleveland Coach Mike Fratello used the old “Why foul ‘em? They can’t shoot anyway” defensive strategy.

I want to go on record as saying Orlando will have 57 points against the Lakers tonight, by, oh, the 10:37 mark of the third quarter.

On the other hand, if the game gets dull, maybe Shaq could play for both sides.