News |

PISTONS `1 GAME AWAY`

Wipe the bugs off the windshield and the dirt off the sidewalls and roll down the rag top. This sometimes shaky, retooled Piston-driven machine from the Motor City is headed for the freeways of Los Angeles with its engine purring and looking good.

That`s because the Detroit Pistons, a collection largely made up of clunkers discarded by other owners and new models passed over by some, shifted into high gear Thursday night and ran over the sleek Los Angeles Lakers 104-94 before the largest playoff crowd in National Basketball Association history, 41,732 in the Silverdome.

That puts the Pistons ahead 3-2 in the final series with Game 6 Sunday in Los Angeles. The winner of Game 5 has won 14 of 18 NBA finals.

”One game away from a world championship,” said Bill Laimbeer, the center who had to play in Europe before coming into the NBA. He grabbed 11 rebounds to lead the Pistons to a 53-31 rebounding edge, 18-7 in the final quarter when the Lakers cut the Pistons` lead to 6 with 6 minutes 54 seconds remaining and struggled desperately to come closer.

”We just could not contain anybody on the boards,” said Lakers coach Pat Riley. ”We got killed in the rebounding department and the foul trouble in the first half really hurt us.”

Especially the three fouls picked up by James Worthy in the first five minutes of the game. The Lakers had burst out to a 12-0 lead to start the game and were still ahead 15-4. Worthy went to the bench until deep in the second quarter, then sat again early in the third quarter when he picked up his fourth. That angered the normally docile Laker forward.

”I`ve played a lot more physical ballgames where the fouls weren`t called,” said Worthy, who scored 14 points in 26 minutes. ”Only the third foul was legitimate. They took me out of the game.

”I don`t understand. I post up, Magic (Earvin Johnson) posts up and Dantley posts up, and only Dantley gets the calls. You never see a 6-4 guy post up and get a call every time he touches the ball.”

Yet, it almost seemed that way for Dantley, the amazing Piston forward playing for his fifth team in 12 seasons.

He scored 25 points, including 11 of 13 from the free-throw line, and helped pull his team back in the game in the first quarter with nine points, seven from the line.

”We need everybody on the floor,” said Johnson, who had 15 points and 17 assists. ”We came out aggressive and then bam, bam, Worthy gets two, then wham, three. Then Coop (Michael Cooper) gets three and we`ve got to play a different game. Every time we`d make a run at them, there`d be a foul and that was it.”

The way Detroit played, aggressive but not as much as in Game 4, it is doubtful the Lakers would have won. For one thing, they caused their own problems with 19 of 33 free-throw shooting while Detroit was 28 of 33.

Detroit`s bench, named the ”road runners” by Rick Mahorn, came at the Lakers like they were Wily E. Coyote.

Vinnie Johnson, still talked about as a possible member of Detroit`s unprotected list for the expansion draft, scored six straight second-quarter points to give Detroit a lead and finished with 16.

Then James Edwards, the center obtained in trade late in the season who scored 10 points in 15 minutes Thursday, slammed in an offensive rebound and dropped a soft jumper after the Lakers pulled to 73-71 with 3:02 left in the third quarter.

”Edwards and Vinnie really hurt us,” Riley said. ”They kept making big, open shots and (Joe) Dumars had his best game of the series.”

Dumars scored 19 points on 9 of 13 shooting as Johnson and his backcourt mate, Byron Scott, were a combined 19 of 31 from the field.

But the bump-and-jump boys, Dennis Rodman and John Salley, wouldn`t let the Lakers back after they again pulled close at 90-84 with 6:54 left.

”Our bench means everything to us,” Laimbeer said. ”It`s one of our major strengths. We can go deep to our bench, and they can`t, and are able to spurt on them when their starters get tired.”

As Salley and Rodman did, combining for 17 rebounds in 49 minutes as they seemed to grab every missed Piston shot in the last stages of the game.

”We had one defensive rebound in the fourth quarter and then had 10 offensive rebounds,” Riley said. ”You don`t beat anybody like that.”

Likely, Los Angeles wouldn`t even have been close, despite their fast start, without 41-year-old Kareem Abdul-Jabbar`s best game of the playoffs. He scored his second highest total of the season with 26 points and was the only Laker to score a field goal during a 10-minute second quarter stretch.

Worthy and Cooper spent much of that time on the bench with fouls, which raised the question of whether the Lakers fought themselves out of the game trying to retaliate for the beating they took in Game 4.

The Lakers` position is not as comfortable, despite Riley`s hopeful confidence.

”I still like our chances,” he said. ”We`e going home and I still believe that this team will win the championship this season.”

The Pistons are not particularly unhappy with their chances.

”We play well on the road,” Laimbeer said. ”The crowds get on us pretty good because nobody likes us, so we play harder. We cheer each other on. But we haven`t accomplished anything yet.”