THE NBA CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES : LOS ANGELES LAKERS vs. DETROIT PISTONS : Abdul-Jabbar’s Shots Fail to Hit the Mark on a Night to Forget

Oh, it’s a long, long way from May 1 to being dismembered, or whatever happened to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, or to his reputation Tuesday night.

Let’s put it this way: It’s been a hard playoff season for the old Big Fella, or the big Old Fella, forced as he’s been to dodge those swinging sides of beef in the lane. Once, he’d have tripped merrily through them, but now he’s 41 and even moving down the scale in size, from 7-4 Mark Eaton to 7-2 James Donaldson to the 6-10 Bill Laimbeer hasn’t turned it around.

Against Laimbeer, an intelligent defender, but one 4 inches smaller and playing him one-on-one, Abdul-Jabbar posted a game to forget: 28 minutes, 8 points, 9 misses in 13 shots, 2 rebounds, 1 in-bounds pass thrown to Isiah Thomas for the half-ending three-pointer, before assuming the Mark Aguirre stance and watching the last 15:16 from the bench.

Abdul-Jabbar made one of his first eight shots, an uncontested layup off a pass from Magic Johnson. The misses were all hooks, his famous skyhook, all seemingly shot right in rhythm, from good locales, with Laimbeer left far below, playing defense this way:

“When he shoots, I say, ‘Please don’t go in.’ And box him out.

“When he’s going, it’s scary. I definitely didn’t want him to get off in Game 1 and make me look bad.

“Because I can’t block his shot. I can just try to move him out. I didn’t want everybody in the country watching him drop hooks on me. I watched a videotape of him for 15 minutes last night, him throwing in hook shot, hook shot, hook shot. It makes you a little nervous.”

But this is another time. Since Dec. 4, when Abdul-Jabbar’s record of 787 straight times in double figures was snapped, he’s had 16 single-digit games--13 in the regular season, which were little noted, 3 in the playoffs.

Against the Jazz and to a lesser extent the Mavericks, the defenses sagged onto him. Tuesday, the Pistons came out playing him straight-up.

How to describe it?

He shot.

He missed.

Lots.

“I don’t think Kareem was contested on his shot,” said Pat Riley. “He was swinging free. They just didn’t drop.”

Abdul-Jabbar remained in the dressing room a long time, talking about it. Being able to explain it may have been something else.

“I was just missing,” he said. “I didn’t really get a hand in my face. They just didn’t go.

“They didn’t feel too good. There are nights like that. I don’t think I was forcing things. I didn’t think I was taking shots that hurt my team. They weren’t going in but nobody else was getting open.”

Maybe the other Lakers were anxious to get Abdul-Jabbar going, or to see if he was going.

He wasn’t.

Scorers are taught to keep on shooting, that every miss brings them closer to making one. Abdul-Jabbar kept on putting them up, and missing them.

“It’s really surprising to me, I wasn’t able to play more effectively on offense,” he said later. “But those things are going to happen.”

The first half ended with Laimbeer fading to the corner to hit a three-pointer, after which Abdul-Jabbar tried to hit Byron Scott near half-court with the in-bounds pass. Thomas stepped up, intercepted and nailed another three-pointer at the buzzer, a spike in the Laker heart.

“Coach Riley was really upset that we were making mental errors on top of everything else,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “We made two mental mistakes and gave them six points. That never should have happened.”

It did, but it has before, too, and he’s always bounced back. Of course, he’s never been 41 before.