Utah Tries to Slow Lakers at Forum Today

For those front-runners who don’t pay attention to the Lakers until the National Basketball Assn. playoffs are here, a few introductions are in order before the second round begins today at the Forum.

Someone has to tell them who the Utah Jazz are, because the Jazz and the Lakers have never met in postseason play. If the Jazz hadn’t taken out the Portland Trail Blazers in four games in the first round, it would still be in the company of the Clippers as the only Western Conference teams never to have made it to Inglewood for a playoff date.

So, who are these guys?

--The fat man on the bench is Frank Layden, whose backsliding on his diet has permanently disqualified him as national spokesman for the Pritikin centers. The NBA wishes Layden would speak less, period, especially on the subject of officials, and as a silencer slapped the franchise with a reported $10,000 fine a couple of months ago after Layden described referees as an “absolute disgrace.”

That might have lightened Layden’s wallet, but they couldn’t dampen his sense of humor. The Brooklyn-born Layden, a lifelong Dodger fan who can more than match Tom Lasorda’s belt line and punch line, closed Jazz practice the other day for the first time since he became coach of the team in 1981. Asked the reason for the secrecy, Layden cracked:

“Pat Riley was coach of the year in USA Today and I came in 10th. So I said, ‘ . . . this. I’m going to close practices, too.’ ”

Incidentally, Layden--asked before the playoffs about the prospects of meeting the Lakers down the road--showed he can do impressions, too. “We have no chance,” said Layden, doing his best Doug Moe.

--The guy who looks as if he sleeps with his barbells under his pillow is Karl Malone, the power forward. Malone is maybe the best known of the Jazz; he certainly has the best nickname--the “Mailman”--because someone decided he delivers. If Malone were a letter carrier, he wouldn’t need a pouch; he could tote an entire mailbox on his back.

Malone aspires someday to be a Mr. Olympia, but don’t expect to find him anywhere near Muscle Beach on this trip.

“We’re not coming to L.A. to get a suntan,” Malone said after he sent the Trail Blazers back to Portland bearing his personal stamp of 38 points--18 in the fourth quarter--in Game 4 Friday night.

Malone didn’t play nearly that well in the first game of the series at Portland, when he shot 5 for 22 and refused to take phone calls from everybody. Well, almost everybody. His mom, Shirley (“the only woman in my life,” he told reporters) correctly predicted she’d get through from her home in Louisiana, just as she does every day.

“I’m going to tell the operator who I am, and she’s going to put me through to his room,” Shirley Malone said. “If she doesn’t, she’ll hear about it from Karl.”

Besides having a collection of pets to rival Michael Jackson’s--a python, an eel, a lobster and a Rottweiler, among others--Malone also has a way of putting a leash on the poor unfortunates who have to line up against him. In only his third season, Malone was fifth in the league in scoring (27.7 points a game) and fourth in rebounds (12 a game). When it was suggested to Laker Coach Pat Riley that neither of his power forwards, Kurt Rambis or A.C. Green, could match up with Malone, Riley said:

“Probably Karl could take on any 10 of my guys. He’s a 6-foot-9, 260-pound piece of steel. I don’t think there’s anybody that has the three things he embodies: strength, quickness and power.”

--The guy resting his chin on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s shoulder is Mark Eaton, who might as well be 4 feet 7 as 7 feet 4, for as much as he is appreciated in Salt Lake City. The talk show callers tend to dwell on the fact that Eaton has all the grace and offensive skills of a lamppost; fans have taken to wildly cheering his backup, center Mel Turpin, even though he’s as wide as a lamp shade.

Yes, Eaton averaged just 7 points a game, shot only 41.8% and has a hook shot so primitive-looking it may predate Dr. Naismith. However, as ugly as Eaton’s own shot may be, take a look at what he makes the opposition put up merely by his 290-pound towering presence. Eaton led the league in blocked shots for the fourth time in six seasons, averaging 3.71 rejections a game, and redirects more flights than an air traffic controller at LAX.

Layden laughed at the notion that Eaton is a handful for Abdul-Jabbar. “That’s like saying Tommy Lasorda can strike out Babe Ruth,” Layden said after one game at the Forum.

Riley, however, recognizes the toll it takes on Abdul-Jabbar having Eaton leaning on him all game long.

“It’s been a push,” Riley said of the matchup. “Maybe not from a numbers standpoint, because (Eaton) isn’t offensive-minded.

“But what we do want to see is more shot-blocking and rebounding from our post people.”

The Lakers beat the Jazz in four of their five meetings this season, but shot only 46.2% in doing so, well below their season average of 50.5%. Going into the lane with Eaton is like trying to pass a semi in an alley on a motor scooter. You might slip through, but you’re just as liable to wind up splattered on a wall.

“Even though his stats aren’t up there,” said Laker forward Kurt Rambis, “he can’t be ignored. He’s blocking shots, rebounding and clogging the middle. He forces teams to play from the perimeter.”

--Then there’s the guy who will have the ball more than any other Jazz player, John Stockton, who comes from a school so obscure, Gonzaga, that it produced Bing Crosby and still no one has ever heard of it.

They may not have heard of Stockton when the Jazz drafted him in the first round in 1984, but they have now. Stockton, who is 6-1, looks 5 years younger than his age (26) and has been compared to a choirboy so often that he should just give up and wear a robe when he plays, led the NBA in assists this season with 13.8 a game, almost two more per game than Magic Johnson.

He also was third in steals (2.95) and fourth in field-goal percentage (57.4%), and against Portland totally outplayed a very good point guard, Terry Porter, especially in Game 4, which Stockton finished with 23 points, 10 assists and 9 rebounds.

Against the Lakers this season, Stockton averaged 15.6 points and 15 assists, and in one game last season, he set a club record with 22 assists.

“We’ve got to contain him,” Riley said. “We have to be effective, more than anything, in containing his passing, especially to the low post.

“Stockton’s a guy who is going to play 45 minutes a night. We’ve got to exploit that. We’ve got to send fresh people in on him, like Earvin (Johnson) sees all the time.”

As well as Stockton has played, Riley believes the Laker backcourt of Johnson and Byron Scott has an edge on Utah’s, where Stockton has been joined by Bobby Hansen at the off-guard.

“Our guard play has definitely been a big plus,” Riley said. Our guards have outrebounded theirs by about 30, and they’ve outscored and outshot them.”

The Lakers also have to be sure that Utah’s sixth man, Thurl Bailey, doesn’t get too many of his shots: Bailey had a game-high 33 in Utah’s only win of the season against the Lakers, 106-92, April 2 in the Salt Palace.

“If you let him go off, you’re not going to be able to stop him,” Riley said of Utah’s 6-11 small forward, who played for North Carolina State’s 1983 NCAA championship team. “ . . . (But) he’s a very unpredictable player.”

The Jazz has never gotten past the second round in the playoffs, and is 2-30 against the Lakers in the Forum, which doesn’t bode well for its chances in the first two games here. But the Lakers don’t expect Utah, Malone’s nickname to the contrary, to just mail this series in.

“Every game is going to be an ugly, grind-it-out game,” Riley said,

“They don’t allow any other kind of game because of their defense. And they have to be one of the most physical teams left in the playoffs.”

For that reason alone, the Lakers will know whom they’re up against, even if some of their fans don’t. Bruises have a way of being the most poignant reminders.