Cool Reception for Dunleavy : Pro basketball: Lakers welcome back former coach by handing the Bucks their seventh consecutive loss, 114-96.

The best-laid plans of mice, men and former coaches oft go astray, but Mike Dunleavy’s was dead on arrival.

Dunleavy, coaching his first game in the Forum since resigning as Laker coach, brought his small, young, slumping Bucks with him Sunday night and was overwhelmed by his old team, 114-96.

“Well, that wasn’t a very nice way to treat your old coach,” Dunleavy said later, laughing.

His Bucks, once 10-3, are now 10-10, having lost their seven in a row by an average of 17 points.

The Lakers, once 2-3, are 12-6, having gone 4-0 on this home stand, all of the games against teams on the second night of back-to-backs.

Dunleavy was so keen to get back to Los Angeles that he used his off night Friday to fly here to scout the Lakers. Saturday morning, he awoke at 4:30 to catch a 6 a.m. flight to Salt Lake City, where he held a shoot-around, took an afternoon nap and that night watched the Jazz beat his team, 108-82.

A late-night flight brought the Bucks to Los Angeles and another mismatch.

“They were too big for us,” Dunleavy said. “We go to the bench and they’re coming in with big size and we just don’t have it at this point. You play three seven-footers at one time against us. We only have one on our team.”

Dunleavy started the night worried not only about matchups, but fatigue.

“I can’t keep them from being tired,” Dunleavy said before the game. “You’ve just got to learn how to play tired.”

Not only was Dunleavy looking forward to the game, so were his former players such as Sedale Threatt, who joked with his former coach beforehand.

“He told me,” Dunleavy said, “ ‘Don’t even say it, you’re not going to let me go left. I’ll kill you going right.’

“I told him, ‘If you do that, it will kill me. I’ll have a heart attack.’ ”

For a quarter, at least, the Bucks kept up a good front, outrebounding the Lakers, shooting 60% and taking a 30-25 lead in the closing seconds of the period. Blue Edwards then batted a loose ball ahead to Eric Murdock, who took it in alone for the dunk that would have put Milwaukee ahead by seven points.

Instead, Elden Campbell came out of nowhere and tipped the ball away from Murdock in mid-tomahawk. Moments later, Threatt beat the buzzer ending the period with a three-pointer and instead of a seven-point deficit, the Lakers trailed, 30-28.

The second quarter was all the Lakers’. Whichever way Threatt was going, he had 14 points by halftime and the Lakers had a 62-50 lead.

The Lakers pushed the lead up to 18 points during the third period. The Bucks cut it to 11, but no further.

“I was hoping we could get under 10 to rattle them a little bit,” Dunleavy said. “But they’re a veteran team. James (Worthy), Sam (Perkins), Sedale. . . . They know how to play, and that’s why they’ll go a long way.”

For added indignity, Dunleavy drew a technical foul. The next time he wanted to complain, he had assistant coach Frank Hamblen get up to talk to the referee.

“I didn’t want to get tossed in L.A.,” Dunleavy said later.

He had enough troubles.

Laker Notes

Rookie Anthony Peeler led the Lakers with 21 points, his high as a pro. . . . Said Coach Randy Pfund, laughing: “Right now we’re going with a big lineup. Maybe we’ll find we like a smaller lineup. We’re all over the place. I don’t know what I’m doing. I just put a couple of guys out there and we win.”

Four weeks after leaving the lineup because of a sprained right foot, Byron Scott is still at least one week away from rejoining the team. “Same deal,” trainer Gary Vitti said. “Could be one week, could be two.” . . . Tony Smith, sidelined for three games because of a hamstring strain, will try to practice today. The Lakers hope he can return this week and if so, will further defer any thought of adding a guard.