Rambis Brings Lakers Back as They Rebound and Beat Spurs, 118-102

Maybe it is time to take Kurt Rambis a little more seriously when he shoots the ball. Maybe he should be given an award for his offense. So make Rambis Sunday’s comeback player of the day.

Rambis came back from Portland, the place where his surprising offensive game was first unleashed Saturday night against the Trail Blazers when he bagged 17 points.

He came back Sunday night with 13 points and 11 rebounds in a performance that also included an 18-foot straight-in jumper. That was probably the most interesting shot in the Lakers’ 118-102 victory over the San Antonio Spurs at the Forum.

Suddenly, the transformation of Kurt Rambis seems complete. He has come full circle on offense.

“Every now and then, Kurt breaks out with a scoring binge,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said.

Once a liability, Rambis is now an asset that the Lakers are using to full advantage. He is picking up fans everywhere, even one who dresses in the next locker-room stall.

James Worthy said he greatly admired the seldom-seen Rambis jumper that he saw Sunday night.

“Kurt doesn’t have to pump fake,” Worthy said. “He’s the Skywalker now. His jump shot is real sweet.”

There is much sweetness and light to the Lakers right now. They are on a roll, just like Rambis. Their relatively easy victory over the Spurs not only ended a stretch of four games in five nights, but it also increased their record to a league-best 13-2 and that’s even a little better than Riley ever expected.

“I wrote down before the season that after these first 15 games we’d be 12-3,” Riley said. “But I like the numbers we have.”

The Lakers finished the five-night mini-marathon with three victories in four games and came within four seconds and one jump shot by Denver’s Wayne Cooper from winning them all.

There wasn’t much the Spurs could do to keep the Lakers from winning another one Sunday night. The Lakers blocked seven shots, out-rebounded the Spurs by 19 and crunched them with a 37-point third-quarter that split the game wide open.

Mike Mitchell, who finished with 24 points, scored 10 points in succession to begin the second half, and the Spurs were in pretty good position to challenge, trailing only 75-65.

But in a little over three minutes later, they were getting run off the court. The Lakers scored the next eight times they touched the ball. Rambis applied the crusher with his no-hesitation jumper that put the Lakers way ahead, 91-71.

Rambis took only eight shots, but he made five of them. At Portland, Rambis shot five for seven, but in spite of his success, Rambis downplayed his new-found offensive productivity.

“I don’t know if two games exactly qualifies as what you would call a groove,” he said. “Sometimes you work just as hard, but when the ball doesn’t go in for you, that doesn’t mean you were bad that night.”

Do not think that Rambis provided the bulk of the Laker offense. That would be saying a bit too much, because the points still came from the normal sources. Magic Johnson did the most damage, scoring 23 points with 13 assists, while Worthy had 21 points.

But what Rambis has been able to do with the ball is an indication of the depth of problems that the Lakers can throw at a team. Most of the people the Lakers are beating are pointing to the Laker rebounding.

They had 48 against the Spurs, who managed only 29. Maurice Lucas came off the bench to get 10 rebounds in 20 minutes, which was two more than 7-2 Spur center Artis Gilmore got in 35 minutes.

San Antonio Coach Cotton Fitzsimmons said that how the Lakers treated the Spurs on the backboards was not a unique experience, but one shared by all.

“We are not the Lone Ranger out there,” he said. “They hurt everybody on the boards. They’re awful good.”

The Lakers were only good enough in the first half to take a 61-55 lead. But when the Spurs came out soft defensively in the third quarter, the Lakers got 12 points from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and ended the quarter with 98-77 lead.

Magic concluded the quarter with a flourish, assisting Abdul-Jabbar on a slam dunk, then going in himself for a driving layup.

After the game, Johnson was virtually ignored by reporters who gathered instead around Rambis to hear him recount his latest exploits.

“Kurt deserves the attention,” Johnson said. “Guys like him go unnoticed a lot. He might not get 30 points, if he don’t get those rebounds, then there’s no points for nobody.”

Laker Notes Byron Scott played 16 minutes in his second game since he came off the injured list. Scott started slowly and shot only 3 for 10, but Coach Pat Riley played Scott for 16 minutes to help him get his wind back. “I need to keep drilling with the team each day to get myself back into the lineup,” Scott said. “I can kind of take my time and not put much pressure on me.” Mike McGee, Scott’s replacement in the starting lineup, has shot only 9 for 27 in his last three games. . . . The Lakers are off until Friday night when they play Seattle in the Forum.