Abdul-Jabbar, Rambis Take Edge Off Spurs, 122-110

For a while Friday night, it appeared that the Lakers had spent three days in Santa Barbara working on the wrong game.

Polo, maybe. But basketball? You could have put the Lakers on ponies and stuck mallets in their hands and they couldn’t have knocked the ball around more than they did in the first quarter Friday, when they averaged a turnover a minute and were about as fluid as an off-shore oil spill.

But by the end of the evening, the Lakers managed to shake the sand out of their sneakers and establish a 1-0 beachhead over the San Antonio Spurs with a 122-110 in the opening game of their first-round, best-of-five Western Conference playoff series. And the way Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kurt Rambis played, maybe the Lakers ought to investigate whether they could rent out a spare wing of the Western White House for the rest of the playoffs.

Abdul-Jabbar, who drew two fouls in six seconds and went to the bench five minutes into the game, blocked 4 shots and scored 11 points in a 6 1/2-minute span of the second quarter to turn an unexpected 6-point San Antonio lead into an 11-point Laker halftime advantage, 60-49.

Rambis, meanwhile, who has returned to a starter’s role after spending much of the season yo-yoing in and out of the Lakers’ playing rotation, made his first seven shots of the third quarter--including a you-had-to-see-it-to- believe-it jam off a lob pass from James Worthy. He scored 15 straight points in the quarter and a career playoff high 19 for the game.

“I guess he paid attention to that new collective bargaining agreement a couple of days,” cracked Laker Coach Pat Riley, referring to Rambis’ new-found status as a free agent, which may spare him the experience of winding up his career playing for an expansion team, a fate that seemed likely given Rambis’ age (30) and reduced role with the Lakers.

It helped, Riley said, that the Spurs chose to ignore Rambis and concentrate on the other four Lakers on the floor.

“Oddly enough, no, we focused on him,” deadpanned San Antonio Coach Bob Weiss.

Abdul-Jabbar, of course, has been a focal point in every playoff in which he has played, and this, his record 17th, was no exception. And if anyone was looking for signs of an Abdul-Jabbar decline, they didn’t find them Friday. Twice in the second quarter, Abdul-Jabbar got standing ovations from the sellout crowd of 17,505, after rejecting shots by ex-Laker Frank Brickowski, Ricky Wilson and Walter Berry.

“I think we needed to put a defensive stop on them,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “I think maybe I had them looking over their shoulders.”

If nothing else, Abdul-Jabbar certainly grabbed the attention of his teammates.

“Those guys (the Spurs) love to drive to the hoop--Alvin (Robertson), Frank (Brickowski) and Walter Berry all love to go to the basket, and you have to contest as many shots as you can,” said Mychal Thompson, the one-time Spur who wreaked havoc on his former team by blocking 5 shots himself and grabbing a game-high 14 rebounds in 34 minutes off the bench.

“Maybe Kareem ought to buy a house up in Santa Barbara and move there. That clean air refreshed his lungs and made him full of energy.

“It gave us all a lift when he came in so defensive-minded. Everyone knows he can score 20 points--effortlessly--but when he comes in defensive-minded, and intimidates and changes shots, that gets our whole game going.”

James Worthy, who led the Lakers with 22 points along with 9 assists--and a team-high 7 of the Lakers’ total of 26 turnovers--noticed a major difference in the postseason Abdul-Jabbar and the 41-year-old center who was an occasional no-show during the regular season.

“His intensity was up more than I’ve seen in a long time,” Worthy said.

The Spurs, who were 31-51 during the regular season and losers of five straight to the Lakers, gave a surprisingly decent accounting of themselves. At least they weren’t blown out by 30, which happened to them three straight times in a first-round pairing with the Lakers in 1986.

Robertson had 34 points and 6 steals, and Berry had 25 off the bench. As a team, the Spurs had 17 steals.

This was not a good night, however, for Brickowski, who became a Spur the day the Lakers traded for Thompson. Brickowski had 17 points but just 3 rebounds. He also ate enough leather to keep his Hollywood buddy, Charlie Sheen, in new shoes for a month.

“I had a terrible night,” Brickowski said. “I felt the rest of the team played real well, but it’s so tough because the Lakers have so many weapons.”

But who would have identified Rambis as one?

“He was fantastic tonight,” Brickowski said, shaking his head. “But I don’t know where he got that alley-oop. I’ve never seen him do anything like that before.”

Rambis was scoreless in the first half and took just one shot, but he scored 15 straight points in the third quarter, many of them off feeds from Magic Johnson (13 points, 18 assists).

“He’s a scorer now,” Riley said, tongue in cheek. “We’re going to have to change his role.”

The role of the Lakers as overwhelming favorites remains intact going into Sunday night’s second game. And it may well be a quick three games and out if Abdul-Jabbar duplicates his opening-night performance.

“The guys were kidding him that he was 26 years old,” Michael Cooper said. “When he’s playing that well, there’s no way we can lose.”

The Lakers’ early sloppiness was not all that shocking, according to Thompson.

“Pre-playoff jitters,” he said. “We were just a little too anxious at first. That can happen, even to a veteran team like this one that’s been through so many wars before.

“If Mike Tyson can be nervous before a fight, we can get nervous before a game.”

Laker Notes

While the rest of the Lakers were imitating a fire drill in the first quarter, Byron Scott kept them close--they trailed by two, 28-26--with 12 points. Scott finished with 19 points. He also had a team-high 5 steals. . . . The Lakers shot 58.6%, better than their 57.9% against San Antonio in the regular season. . . . Mychal Thompson’s 14 rebounds were his playoff high as a Laker. . . . Almost unnoticed in the “Rambo” hysteria was the play of A.C. Green, who came off the bench to spell Kurt Rambis and scored 16 points in 22 minutes. San Antonio Coach Bob Weiss: “We were aware that Rambis was capable of the type of night he had tonight. In the past, Green has had those type of nights against us.” . . . Rambis’ previous career playoff scoring high was 17 points. . . . Sunday’s game will be the 200th playoff game of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s career. . . . The lineup insert in Friday’s game program listed David Robinson on the Spur roster. Robinson, of course, is still an ensign in the U.S. Navy, which was duly noted in the program’s small print. . . . During the telecast of the Knicks-Celtics game, which Laker family and friends were watching in the Forum press lounge, the TV suddenly blacked out--and was replaced, for about 30 seconds, by a porno flick.