Lakers Try to Adjust to East Against 76ers

The Lakers are 2-5 against the best teams in the Eastern Conference this season and 27-9 against everybody else in the league. So why can’t they do any better against the East?

There are a lot of reasons, the Lakers say, but the best explanation seems to be that there just aren’t any teams like Boston or Philadelphia and few like Detroit, Milwaukee and Washington in the uniformly weak Western Conference.

“This year in particular, our conference hasn’t been that strong,” Jamaal Wilkes said. “You can go right down the list and see why. Portland had injuries, Walter Davis hasn’t played a game at Phoenix yet, the Clippers had so many guys out of training camp and never really got going, Utah started slow with (Adrian) Dantley and then lost John Drew, and Houston lost John Lucas.”

Clearly, the Lakers have not been pushed by anybody in the West, which has only three other teams with winning records. If the Lakers were in the East, they would be forced to play up to their level of competition, Bob McAdoo said.

“There’s definitely something to that,” he said. “Sometimes, we’re just not prepared. If we had to play those guys every night because we were in the same conference, it would be a whole lot different.”

On the Lakers’ last trip, they lost three of four games after opening with an easy victory over Dallas, a Western Conference team. The Lakers lost to each of the Eastern teams they played--Detroit, Milwaukee and Boston, all of which play a more physical game than the Lakers, who lean toward finesse.

LAKERS VS. EAST How Lakers Have Fared Against Top Teams in Eastern Conference in Recent Seasons.

1984-85 Boston 0-1 Philadelphia 0-1 Detroit 0-1 Milwaukee 1-1 Washington 1-1 Total 2-5 1983-84 Boston 2-0 Philadelphia 1-1 Detroit 1-1 Milwaukee 2-0 Washington 1-1 Total 7-3 1982-83 Boston 0-2 Philadelphia 0-2 Detroit 2-0 Milwaukee 2-0 Washington 1-1 Total 5-5

That brings up another point. Is the East’s record against the Lakers a triumph over the Lakers’ style of play?

“I can’t buy that,” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said. “Except for a couple of bad moments in last year’s championship series, we would have laid that theory to rest. The game just has its ups and downs.”

But last season, the Lakers had fewer downs. They finished the regular season 7-3 against Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee and Washington.

Michael Cooper said that after playing teams from the West, the Lakers have had difficulty in adjusting to those in the East.

“There aren’t too many teams playing too well in our conference,” he said. “Sometimes we tend to be lackadaisical because none of those teams are as physical as the East teams. Then we have to adjust to that style of play, which we do in the playoffs. We can rise to that level.”

Coach Pat Riley would not say that the West isn’t competitive, pointing out instead that such key conference teams as Denver, Portland, Houston and San Antonio are in transition periods.

“Sure, the Lakers haven’t done well against the Eastern teams in the regular season, but the playoffs are something different,” he said. “We can win in spite of what people think is a physical team we wind up playing.”

The Lakers lost on the road to each of the five best teams in the East, but they are 2-0 at home, having defeated Milwaukee and Washington. But if the Lakers are to finish with a winning record against those five East teams, they have to start at 8:30 tonight when they play the Philadelphia 76ers at the Forum.

“Throw out that one blowout at Detroit, and all the rest were very competitive games,” Riley said. “We lost games to those teams on the road that we were supposed to lose. We’re supposed to win at home, so we’ll see.”