Lakers Finally Find Right Tune Against Jazz : Skyhook and Magic Are Back, 113-100

SALT LAKE CITY —  Some resemblance of order was restored to the Laker universe Sunday afternoon in the Salt Palace. Just as the Utah Jazz suspected all along, there’s still some sky in the skyhook, some Magic in the backcourt, and some all-star in Worthy, and not just on some dusty highlight film, circa 1987.

“The obituaries written for our top three guys obviously were a little premature,” said Coach Pat Riley after 29 points by James Worthy, 24 by Magic Johnson and 20 each by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Byron Scott fueled the Lakers’ 113-100 win over Utah, evening their Western Conference semifinal series at two games apiece.

The Jazz might argue, however, that the National Basketball Assn. champions would be on the dark side of the moon if Mark Eaton had managed to stay out of trouble with the law.

Until Eaton drew his fourth foul with 6:40 left in the third quarter, the Jazz held a six-point lead, 67-61, and appeared eminently capable of pushing the Lakers to the brink of playoff elimination with a third straight win. With Utah’s 7-foot-4 center thus handicapped, however, the fast lane suddenly opened for a Laker comeback, and they went to the basket with impunity.

“I was just trying to stay between (Abdul-Jabbar) and the basket,” Eaton said. “Kareem gave it one of his best Oscar performances and got the call.”

By the time Eaton returned, the game had taken a 14-point swing, with the Lakers taking an 84-76 lead after three quarters. And by then, the Jazz couldn’t find the means to brake the Lakers, who now return home to the Forum for Game 5 Tuesday night with their home-court advantage restored.

“That’s life, isn’t it?” Riley said when asked if he thought the Lakers could have won if Eaton had not become the tallest spectator in the house. “Maybe we wouldn’t have, but you know something? We won.”

Eaton’s loss wouldn’t have mattered as much to the Jazz if Coach Frank Layden had a reasonable facsimile of a center to replace him. Instead, Utah is saddled with Mel Turpin, who resembles his corpulent coach more than he does a player.

“Putting Turpin in is like a fifth teat on a bull,” Layden bristled afterward. “He’s about as useless as that.

“He only makes a million dollars. Why should he go out and play?”

Riley had wondered aloud the day before just how the Lakers planned to come out and play Sunday afternoon. They didn’t need a coach, he suggested, as much as they needed a heart specialist. There were others who thought that Abdul-Jabbar, at 41, might require a pacemaker after getting his fill of Eaton.

Abdul-Jabbar, 6 for 27 in the previous two games, quickly dispelled that notion by cutting across the lane, burying a skyhook and thrusting his fist into the air on the Lakers’ first possession.

Meanwhile, A.C. Green, restored to the starting lineup in place of Kurt Rambis, may have given the most vivid example of the Lakers’ state of mind when he dropped Karl Malone to the floor like a sack of mail in the first quarter, giving Malone a push that took his legs right out from under him.

Referee Jake O’Donnell, suspecting trouble, brought Green to the foul line before Malone took his free throws.

“Don’t retaliate,” O’Donnell warned both players, and while open warfare may have been avoided, the truce may be an uneasy one.

“Early in the game, that set the tone for them,” said Utah guard Bobby Hansen, who pushed Magic Johnson into the basket standard late in the game after exchanging words with the Laker guard earlier.

“They let us know that’s the way they were going to play, the way they’re going to finish out the series,” said Hansen, who sarcastically referred to Johnson as “Lord Magic” to reporters. “The tone has been set. The games are going to be battles. They’ll be bodies flying, bodies on the floor, bodies in the stands.

“The faint of heart better watch it on TV.”

Someone in Utah was obviously watching TV a week ago, when Jack Nicholson had leaned into the cameras during the Lakers’ Game 1 rout and said, “B-o-o-o-r-ing.”

With the Jazz opening a seven-point lead in the first half, fans paraded through the stands with a banner that read, “Still bored, Jack?”

But with Worthy scoring 21 points in the first half after going almost three foul-plagued quarters without a shot Friday, the Lakers stayed within striking distance, then pulled to within one, 54-53, by scoring the last six points of the half.

When Hansen hit two three-point shots and also made another three-point play when Scott was charged with goaltending and then fouled him on a fast-break layup, the Utah lead was back up to nine, 65-56. It was still seven when Johnson scored on a left-handed layup and drew Hansen’s fourth personal, sending him to the bench.

“A questionable foul,” Hansen said. “The way I’ve been playing Magic the whole series, I’ve been in like a big wrestling match with him. Then to call a cheap little hand-check foul? That’s my only gripe.”

In Hansen’s absence, the Jazz sent in Bart Kofoed, a rookie drafted on the fifth round from Kearney (Neb.) State. Kofoed had played ably ever since Layden lost confidence in one-time All-Star Kelly Tripucka, but he was overmatched Sunday. Worthy stole a pass from Kofoed and went in alone for a layup, Magic beat him on an easy give-and-go with Abdul-Jabbar, and Scott converted another steal into a break-away basket that gave the Lakers a six-point lead, 79-73.

Eaton was on the bench by then and Mychal Thompson was doing an exceptional job of keeping the Jazz from delivering the ball to Malone.

Layden was left to ponder whether he should have sent Eaton back into the game earlier.

“Did I hold him out too long, should I have gone for it?” Layden said. “When he got 4 fouls I had hoped we could keep it around 6 points, either way, thinking we could come back. . . . Maybe I waited too long to get him in there.”

Abdul-Jabbar welcomed Eaton back by ducking under him for a layup that gave the Lakers a 10-point lead, 86-76, moments into the fourth quarter. Scott then buried a jumper and a three-pointer from the corner, Michael Cooper tossed in an 18-footer, then rebounded a three-point miss by Malone and threw a full-court pass to Worthy to make it 95-85. The Jazz never got closer than nine the rest of the way.

“We broke through whatever malaise we’ve shown the last couple of games,” Riley said. “But we’ve only begun. If we’ve learned any lesson, it’s that we can’t take anything for granted.”

The lesson they left Sunday is that they’re still very much to be reckoned with.

“We’re the core of this ballclub,” Worthy said. “We can’t afford to have bad games and make less than a maximum effort.”

Said Magic Johnson: “We played hard, we played aggressively, we played like the Lakers.”

Laker Notes

Utah Coach Frank Layden blew up at Jazz broadcaster Hot Rod Hundley for having A.C. Green as the guest on his postgame show. Green had less than endeared himself to the Jazz by knocking both Karl Malone and Mark Eaton to the floor in separate plays. “Why did you have that . . . Green on the radio?” Layden yelled at Hundley in the Utah dressing room. “I don’t want any of their . . . guys on the radio.” Hundley said he had requested Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson or James Worthy as his guest, but was sent Green instead. . . . Magic on Eaton: “We finally started being aggressive and taking it to him. We made up our mind we weren’t going to change our offense any more. We were charging, we went straight ahead, we weren’t worrying.” Worthy on the same subject: “We were going away from him (in the previous two games). I’d been playing against him six years and this was the first year we haven’t gone at him.” . . . The Lakers, who had shot 42% in Game 3 and 40% in Game 2, shot 52.4% Sunday, making 44 of 84 shots. They held the Jazz, meanwhile, to 41.5%. . . . For the fourth straight game, Malone led the Jazz with 29 points. Asked about his takedown by Green, Malone said: “This series is going to get a whole lot physical, to put it lightly, starting Tuesday night.”

Abdul-Jabbar, who was 6 for 27 in the previous two games, made 9 of his 16 attempts. Mychal Thompson, 3 of 16 Friday, took only three shots Sunday and made them all. Abdul-Jabbar also outrebounded Eaton, 11 to 8, and blocked 3 shots to Eaton’s 1. Thompson had 10 rebounds in his 31 minutes before fouling out. . . . Byron Scott had 4 steals, all in the third quarter, when the Lakers made their comeback. . . . Johnson, who did not have a rebound Friday, had two on Sunday. He also had nine assists. . . . John Stockton had 21 points and 13 assists, but only 5 of his points came in the second half. Laker Coach Pat Riley made a defensive switch, putting Johnson on Stockton in the first half after Scott had guarded him in the first three games. Michael Cooper was on Stockton for much of the second half. “The reason we made the change was to get a taller defender on John,” Riley said. “We wanted to take away his passing more than his shooting. I thought Coop, with his long arms, affected his first pass into the post.” . . . Thurl Bailey, who had been averaging 21.3 points a game against the Lakers, got in foul trouble in the first half and finished with just 14 points. . . . After Riley had walked to the middle of the floor to consult the scorer’s table, Layden walked over to the press table, pulled a long comb out of his jacket pocket, and ran it through his hair. Asked if he’d seen Layden, Riley said: “Yeah, I saw it. I was going to do something, too, but he wouldn’t have liked it.”