Magic Still Not Up to Par as Season Nears

Some year, Mike Dunleavy might get to start the season with a cohesive, healthy team, but the Laker coach will need a rally to do it by Friday.

Magic Johnson, who returned from last weekend’s trip with flu, attended practice Monday but didn’t take part. He underwent more tests Monday and is expected to sit out the rest of the week.

“It’s just fatigue,” Johnson said. “I’m just not strong. I don’t feel like me.”

Backup point guard Tony Smith suffered a severely sprained right ankle Friday in Salt Lake City. He will be be sidelined for at least a week.

A year ago, the Lakers, trying to get used to a new coach and five new players, won once in their first five games. They looked vastly improved this season until hitting the wall last week.

Saturday in Vancouver, they had to use James Worthy as the backup point guard against the Seattle SuperSonics.

Monday, they pressed front-office official Michael Cooper into service so they would have enough guards to practice.

Dunleavy says he has no plans to activate Cooper, but if Johnson’s malady continues into the weekend, the Lakers will be looking for a point guard. They open the season Friday at Houston and play again Saturday at Dallas. Of their first 25 games, 15 will be on the road.

Winners of four of their first five exhibitions, the Lakers lost their last three and finished 4-4, 2-4 against NBA teams.

Dunleavy is hoping to get Johnson back and use a three-guard rotation with Sedale Threatt, rather than the four-guard rotation he played in exhibitions.

“Tony allows us to apply that 94-foot high-pressure defense,” Dunleavy said. “Losing him affects how much we’ll be able to push it. Each of the guys will have to play at least 30 minutes. Basically, it changes us back more to the way we played last year--run when we can. But we did that last year, and we did all right.”

Johnson isn’t the only one feeling low. Rookie Anthony Jones was reportedly coming down with flu by the end of Monday’s drills. The team played on two continents and in three countries in the exhibition season and can feel it.

“I don’t know if it was from Europe,” Dunleavy said. “But we played six games in nine days. They don’t do that in the NBA (regular season). Next year, whoever makes the schedule has to travel the schedule. I’m a little concerned at not having guys available. I thought we’d take this week to recuperate and get our execution down. We did get in some good work today, but it’s tough when key guys aren’t there. That’s life in the NBA. You’ve got no control over injuries.”

The Lakers are still carrying 14 players. Smith will open the season on the injured list, and Dunleavy says he will wait until the end of the week to make his final cut.