Worthy Saves Lakers From Total Collapse : Portland Falls Behind by 24 but Loses by Only 4, 125-121

While the Lakers proved once again Wednesday night that they have virtually perfected this business of getting big leads, there is still some work to do. Now, maybe they can do something to keep from squandering them.

Yes, the Lakers won again. That much isn’t out of the ordinary. But they had to do it the hard way, which was a little surprising.

After three quarters of typical blowout basketball at the Forum, where the Lakers have won 32 of their last 34 regular-season games, the Lakers led the Portland Trail Blazers by 24 points early in the fourth quarter.

Then the Lakers allowed Portland’s substitutes to close within three points in the last 30 seconds before escaping with a 125-121 victory.

This was not the kind of finish the Lakers were expecting.

“I’ll admit, I never thought that was going to happen,” James Worthy said.

Neither did Byron Scott, who was startled by Riley’s summons to get back into the game.

“I didn’t expect to play anymore, so I wasn’t paying much attention to the scoreboard,” Scott said.

Soon, all the Lakers were taking a look at the scoreboard. They couldn’t have liked what they saw.

If it hadn’t been for Worthy’s steal of Clyde Drexler’s inbounds pass intended for Jerome Kersey, the Lakers could very well have been staring at one of their biggest collapses in a long time.

The Lakers did not score a basket in the final 4:56 of the game. They committed 10 turnovers in the fourth quarter. They also gave up 48 points in that quarter.

At one time in the final period, the Trail Blazers trailed, 104-80. Eight minutes later, Portland’s second unit had outscored the Lakers, 34-13, and had closed within 117-114.

“I think Pat Riley thought the game was in jeopardy,” the Trail Blazers’ Terry Porter said.

Riley was indeed thinking that. He blamed the Laker slide on “menmotum,” which he explained as the opposite of “momentum.”

Riley, who was nearly caught playing his bench too long, was forced to bring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Worthy, Scott and Magic Johnson back in the game. The substitution of Worthy proved to be the difference.

The Laker lead had shrunk to 121-117 with 19 seconds left when Worthy poked away Drexler’s inbounds pass intended for Kersey, who fouled Worthy on a breakaway. Three free throws later, the Lakers had just enough points to win.

Drexler said he thought Kersey would step up to take to the pass, but Worthy was the one who got to it.

“Jerome was looking at the Laker girls instead,” Drexler said in jest. “He missed his cue.”

Obviously, the Lakers nearly missed theirs, too. Their 24-point lead just before the end of the third quarter was only a fond memory. And after the game, Riley reminded his second unit, which was on the floor during the Trail Blazer comeback, that they hadn’t handled the big lead very well.

“He jumped all over us,” Maurice Lucas said. “Pat ought to calm down some.”

All was calm on the Laker front when Riley removed Abdul-Jabbar with the Lakers holding a 77-61 lead five minutes deep into the second half, fully intending not to play him again. Instead, Riley wanted to use his second unit to close out the game. They didn’t.

“We were very lucky to win,” Riley said. “I’m not blaming the second unit, because they’ve bailed us out plenty of times, but the reality of the situation is that they got caught not finishing very strongly.”

That much is an understatement. Portland’s non-starters outscored the Laker bench, 56-34, and four of them finished in double figures. Kersey had 16 points, rookie Ken Johnson scored his season-high of 15, Porter had 14 and Caldwell Jones had 12.

The only Laker reserve who did much was Mitch Kupchak, who had 13 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists in 22 minutes.

On the other hand, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the Laker starters. Worthy wound up with a game-high 30 points, while Johnson had 22 points and 16 assists.

After leading, 61-56, at halftime, the Lakers outscored Portland, 36-17, in the third quarter to go up by 24 points.

“On a night like tonight, it was a good thing we had that big lead,” said Abdul-Jabbar, who played 26 minutes and scored 14 points. “Our bench came out and made so many mistakes, and that’s what made it tight.”

Portland Coach Jack Ramsay admitted that his reserves got the Trail Blazers close, which is something his starters didn’t, but he said there was a reason why.

“You’ve got to realize that they were playing against the Laker second unit also,” Ramsay said. “Then they brought in their first unit, but they sat for a long time, and they had lost their rhythm for the game.”

They did not, however, lose the game, which is what Riley preferred to point out, instead of the transgressions of his reserves.

“For three quarters, we played a good game, then we just kind of fell asleep,” he said.

It was only a short nap, not long enough for anything as drastic as getting beat.

“A lot of times, that kind of happens when you get a big lead,” Johnson said. “But I’ll tell you one thing. We’ll take the win.”

Laker notes

Kiki Vandeweghe led the Trail Blazers with 21 points. . . . James Worthy’s 10 rebounds represented his season high. . . . The Lakers, who had sold out six of their previous eight games at the Forum, drew a non-sellout crowd of 16,481. . . . The Trail Blazers haven’t won at the Forum since the final game of the 1982-83 season.