Lakers Lose to Rockets; Worthy Hurt Again : Pro basketball: He leaves the game at halftime because of a sore left knee. Maxwell’s 30 points spark Houston, 105-97.

OK, Laker fans, can you spell lottery?

The Lakers lost another game, another place in the standings and another player Sunday night as the Houston Rockets ran up a 19-point lead and cruised to a 105-97 victory at the Forum.

The Lakers have now lost five of their last six at home and 10 of 11 overall.

They started the night the No. 7 team in the West and fell to No. 8, one game ahead of the No. 9 Clippers.

James Worthy, who sat out three games in January because of a sore left knee, left at halftime after a recurrence of the injury.

“I don’t think he’ll play (Tuesday night) at Portland, for sure,” Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “He’ll be evaluated after that.

“I think it’s been bothering him for some time. Last game, he came in with his knee swollen. I wasn’t sure he was going to play that game against Cleveland (Friday). Same thing today. He made it through the first half. The doctors looked and it and said he couldn’t go.”

Houston guard Vernon Maxwell came into the game having missed all 17 of his shots in his last two road games. He made four three-pointers before the game was seven minutes old.

Maxwell finished with six three-pointers and a game-high 30 points.

“They don’t have a big guy like Magic (Johnson),” Maxwell said of the Lakers. “You don’t have to go down and double-team in the post the way you used to. It’s definitely different.

“Our guys felt comfortable about coming in here and playing. We were talking about it at shoot-around today--’Let’s come in here and get this one.’ ”

The Rockets are now 5-1 under new Coach Rudy Tomjanovich, giving him an .833 winning percentage, tops among active coaches.

“When you come in, almost in a state of shock like I did, everything is a surprise,” Tomjanovich said before the game. “I think it would be tough to be a first-year coach coming in if you had the time to prepare over the summer. The way it’s happened to me, it’s really learning day to day.”

One thing he was stressing, however, was the need for his guards to look inside before shooting from the perimeter.

With the Lakers double-teaming Hakeem Olajuwon on Houston’s fourth offensive play, the ball went to Maxwell, who made a three-pointer.

Sensing a hot streak, Maxwell proceeded to make another three-pointer the next time he touched the ball, following it in successive possessions with a turnover, a miss from 17 feet, a miss from 20 feet and another turnover.

Then he made two more three-pointers in succession, plus an 18-footer. When Byron Scott came up to challenge him, he drove to the basket and dunked, giving him 16 points with the game 8:10 old.

The Lakers must have known they were in for a long night when Maxwell was relieved by Sleepy Floyd, another streak shooter, who made his first four tries, including a three-pointer, with none of them closer than 18 feet.

And then the No. 3 forward, Matt Bullard, made his first three shots, including a three-pointer, with nothing closer than 18 feet.

Olajuwon, hampered by fouls, played only seven minutes of the first half, but the Rockets barely noticed, making six three-pointers in 10 tries and leading, 49-41.

With Worthy gone, the Lakers collapsed during the third quarter. The Rockets ran fast break after fast break, taking a 19-point lead.

The Lakers pulled to 101-94 during the fourth quarter, but got no closer. “The intensity we had in the fourth quarter is what we’ve got to have to survive,” Dunleavy said.

Sam Perkins, last remaining healthy starter from the original front line, dressed slowly.

“Well, you know it is discouraging,” he said. “You go home and think about it. No one likes to lose or accepts losing, especially the way things used to be. But you have to face reality. Just keep going and play through it. This is probably the lowest I’ve seen or been in.”

Laker Notes

The Lakers’ 12 home losses are as many as they had in the last two seasons combined. . . . Vernon Maxwell’s six three-pointers were a record against the Lakers. The record was five, by the Seattle SuperSonics’ Dale Ellis in 1989 and Utah’s Kelly Tripucka in 1987.