Magic Teases Sonics, Then Lowers Boom

SEATTLE —  Another Dumpty fell off the wall, or was nudged by Magic Johnson, who seemed to pause as if for dramatic emphasis until the home team went ahead in the closing minutes and the record crowd was going wild before applying the coup de grace.

With the Lakers down, 109-106, in the last 3:09, he scored on three successive trips down the floor, and over went the SuperSonics. The Lakers beat them in a rough-tough 117-114 game Thursday night before 14,749, the largest crowd ever to watch a game in the Coliseum.

Johnson scored 34 points with 13 assists and 10 rebounds, his eighth triple-double game of the season and second in a row.

The Lakers are 31-1 against teams with losing records. The one they lost was at Phoenix, when Johnson was kicked in the calf and left the game after four minutes.

“It got right down to it,” Laker Coach Pat Riley said, “and Earvin Johnson pretty much took over.

“He’s been playing eight years at his level, which is the best. But it’s gone up another one.”

The Lakers needed all the levels he could reach Thursday night. They spent the night fighting off the local scoring machine, only to find that it kept on cranking out points.

Seattle trailed through the first half but grabbed a lead early in the third period. Then Magic stopped the run by stripping Xavier McDaniel, who was about to mash an offensive rebound.

Johnson took the ball down to the other end of the court and hit Byron Scott, who scored on an 18-footer. On the next trip, Johnson ran a fast break for a James Worthy layup. Then Johnson stole Nate McMillan’s pass and got his third assist in three times down the floor, a dunk by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Did the Sonics care? With two of their centers, Alton Lister and Maurice Lucas, injured, they rose once more. The third center, Clemon Johnson, tied the game on a rebound with 4:15 left.

On Seattle’s next possession, Dale Ellis made two free throws. Then Ellis rubbed Scott off on a high-post pick, took a pass and scored on a layup, putting the Sonics ahead, 109-106.

“They had the momentum, there was no question about it,” Magic Johnson said. “Somebody was needed to score, so I thought I would try to be the one. I shot that one, and I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to try for two.’ ”

His first one was an 18-foot jumper--or in his case, a tippy-toer--from the left side, cutting the Sonic lead to 109-108. The Sonics ran the Ellis ruboff play again, but this time Scott slid through the pick.

The ball was reversed to Tom Chambers and batted away from him. Chambers chased it down on the other side of the halfcourt line, and with :03 left on the shot clock, heaved it back to Clemon Johnson. The Sonic center beat the clock with an ungainly 18-footer that almost went in. It rattled around the rim and out.

At the other end, Magic drove into the lane against Ellis and scored over him with a hook, giving the Lakers the lead, 110-109, with 2:27 left.

Ellis missed a jumper, McDaniel got the rebound but missed trying to go over Abdul-Jabbar. At the other end, guess which Laker drove the lane for the basket that made it 112-109?

At the end of the game, the Sonics had run out of guard prospects to cover Magic and were trying out the fearsome McDaniel, a pocket power forward who hopped on Magic’s case with gusto. He cut Johnson off at halfcourt and bumped him around some, until Johnson spun off, got into the lane once more, was fouled and made the free throws.

“I was trying to back him in,” Johnson said, “and I thought to myself, ‘What am I doing? You can’t back X in.’

“A lot has changed from my first seven years. They’re looking for me to score. They’re looking for me to take over. They want me to shoot.

“I have to get that mentality like X has, like Dale Ellis, Tom Chambers, Kareem, that scorer’s mentality. They don’t think they can be stopped by anyone. Early, I wasn’t doing it. If I was missing, I think, ‘Oh n-o-o-o, I’m not going to shoot any more.’

“Pat Riley had talked to me about it in camp. I accept any role he wants to give me. It was going to show what type of player I was. My first seven years, nobody thought I could do this.”

They know better now. If they don’t, they could run this game film, or about 50 of the ones that preceded it.

Laker Notes

Seattle’s Alton Lister went down in the third period, was carried off and found to have broken a bone in his left foot. Then Maurice Lucas left the game late with a tender right ankle and was taken to a hospital for precautionary X-rays. . . . Pat Riley: “I think it’s a critical time for us. We can see where we are. We’ve got 58 wins but let’s see where we are, out there on the road.” The Lakers have now won 14 of 15 and have the NBA’s best road record at 24-12. . . . Only one loss to a sub-.500 team? The Lakers lost in their last game here, but at the time, Seattle was over .500. . . . The Lakers will play at Portland tonight.