This Time Dallas Is Hardly a Rest Stop on Road to Boston

None of the Lakers will admit it, but this series they’re playing with the Dallas Mavericks is turning out to be a lot more interesting than they thought it would be.

In fact, everyone involved is having such a slam-bang time, they’re all heading down to Dallas this morning to get ready to do it again Thursday. A Willie Nelson party should be such fun.

You’ve heard of Dallas. That’s the city that Laker fans, and maybe even a Laker player or two, once considered a rest stop on the highway to Boston.

The Mavericks weren’t a team so much as they were a Howard Johnson’s off the Interstate. You know, stop off in Dallas for an ice cream, a cup of coffee, let the kids use the restroom, but let’s make it snappy. The Celtics are expecting us, and you know how cranky they get when we keep ‘em waiting.

“We knew we were in for a tough series against Dallas,� is what every Laker is saying.

Right. The Lakers knew the Mavericks would turn into The Thing That Wouldn’t Die. These Dallas guys all the sudden think they’re America’s Team. They have this “team of destiny� look in their eyes and in their jump shots.

They suffered a small setback Tuesday night at the Forum, losing Game V of the Super Bowl of undercard playoff serieses.

Still, the Mavericks have established that they play a good game and talk a good game. They even hinted going in that the Lakers had a tendency to, well, uh, choke, in pressure situations. The Lakers may have contributed to this overall impression.

Maybe this sort of talk inspired the Lakers, who knows. The Lakers weren’t talking a lot after Tuesday’s game. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar took a five-second shower and sprinted off to his car, mumbling a few perfunctory cliches.

The rest of the Lakers were also far from ecstatic. Their locker room was subdued. But at least they’ve overcome, at least for the moment, the Mavericks’ clever psyche job.

“This was a crunch game for us,� Pat Riley, Lakers coach, said.

Riley has been fuming at the words aimed his way via the press by Dallas coach and master psychologist Dick Motta.

“All the rhetoric the first four games goes right out the window,� Riley said.

Maybe, but as it goes out the window, a new shipment is coming through the door. Now Motta’s talking about how the Mavericks should have already won the series.

If Riley is looking for a comeback to Motta, he might try this one:

“Sixteen.�

That’s how many NBA playoff games Motta has coached in the Forum (not all as coach of the Mavericks), and that’s how many playoff games his teams have lost in the Forum.

Unfortunately for the Lakers, the next game will be played at Dallas, where the ball always seems to bounce the wrong way for the Lakers.

Like last Sunday, when Kareem had a chance to tie the game with a hook shot that would have been a gimmie if it was a golf putt, but he fumbled the ball and clanged it off the rim.

That was also the game where the ball bounced away from Kareem all day and he wound up with a total of one rebound. One.

But a funny thing happened to Kareem Tuesday night. He not only got a respectable eight rebounds, but he also had nine assists and 34 points.

His tip-in with 1:44 left gave the Lakers a three-point lead. His clever pass to a cutting Magic Johnson at 1:13 gave the Lakers a five-point lead. And Kareem’s hook shot with 0:09 on the clock put the Mavericks away, giving the Lakers a five-point lead.

“It was vintage Cap (team captain Kareem),� Riley said of Abdul-Jabbar’s performance. “He showed great patience with the ball. We generated a lot of offense out of the post.�

It helped Kareem that Magic was hitting him with passes, then making sharp cuts through the key for return passes that carved up the Mavericks’ interior defense.

It also helped Kareem that Michael Cooper found his jump shot, which had taken a brief vacation. Cooper went into the game shooting 11-26 for the series, including a 1-for-7 outing last Sunday.

Then he started off cold Tuesday.

“For a minute there, I almost quit shooting,� Cooper said, “then a couple of guys told me to keep shooting.�

No, smarty, the guys weren’t Mavericks. They were Lakers, Magic Johnson and James Worthy. They knew Cooper needed a slap on the back, a vote of confidence. He got it, and drilled three clutch jump shots in the fourth quarter, including a three-point bomb, one of three three-pointers he hit for the night. Welcome stuff for the Lakers.

Cooper was shooting like a Maverick.

Magic was typically magnificent. After a long fight, he finally gave the Lakers the lead late in the third quarter with a classic play.

Magic stripped the ball from Brad Davis on a drive, dribbled to the Laker end of the court, where Davis stripped the ball back from Magic. But Magic picked up the loose ball near the Laker free throw line, dribbled around 6-10 Detlef Schrempf and then twisted around and over 7-2 James Donaldson and was fouled, converting the three-point play.

The Lakers never again trailed.

Shoot, it was easy, just like everyone in L.A. figured it would be.

But why does Boston suddenly seem so far away?