Today’s Suspension Will Put End to Cooper’s Streak

SEATTLE — Michael Cooper sat through a screening of the new Chuck Norris flick, “Missing in Action, Part III,” here Saturday, but his mind was elsewhere.

“I was thinking about Cooper Missing in Action, Part I,” said the Laker guard, who has been suspended for today’s game against the Seattle SuperSonics because of his part in a fourth-quarter fight Friday night in the Lakers’ game against the New York Knicks.

The suspension, announced Saturday morning by Rod Thorn, the National Basketball Assn.’s vice president of operations, will end Cooper’s streak of 455 consecutive regular-season games (556 including playoffs), the second-longest streak by an active player in the league. The Detroit Pistons’ Bill Laimbeer has played in 595 straight regular-season games.

“The streak isn’t important in this case,” said Cooper, who played only three games his rookie season because of a knee injury but had missed just seven games in 8 1/2 seasons since then.

“I was trying to break up a fight and ended up in it.”

Also suspended for one game was New York forward Pat Cummings, who sat out the Knicks’ game Saturday night against the Sacramento Kings. Thorn said Cummings was suspended for “initiating the incident,” while Cooper was punished for “entering and escalating the altercation.”

Thorn also said that fines will be announced later this week. It’s an automatic $250 fine to leave the bench when a fight breaks out, while the principals--Cooper, Cummings and Laker forward A.C. Green--almost certainly will be fined more.

Friday night’s fight, which broke out with 9:26 left in the game, started when Green and Cummings tangled under the basket and shoved each other apart. Cooper interceded after Cummings pushed an open hand into Green’s face. Then both benches emptied, the fight spilled into the courtside seats, knocking over a middle-aged spectator, and Cummings wound up on top of Cooper before the two were separated by, among others, a Forum usher.

Cooper did not learn of the suspension until the team’s plane arrived here Saturday afternoon. The game against the Knicks had been televised in New York, so league officials were able to review tapes immediately.

“It was inevitable,” Cooper said of the suspension. “It’s just something that comes with the turf.

“I don’t condone fighting, and I hated getting into the fight, especially since my son (Michael) and daughter (Simone) were there at the game, and also for other kids who saw it.

“But it was a situation where something had to be done. I just reacted.”

Cooper said it has become a common tactic for teams around the league to try to intimidate the Lakers, and that Green may be a special target.

“A.C.’s a Christian guy,” Cooper said, “and they (other teams) know who to pick on. Word gets around.”

Green did not react immediately when Cummings shoved his hand into Green’s face. Cooper was asked if he thought Green--despite his religious convictions--would retaliate if he had to.

“I think he would,” Cooper said. “But guys are taking cheap shots at him. What Cummings did was a very, very cheap shot.

“The referee was holding A.C., and I was trying to hold (Cummings) back, and he walks up and slaps or punches A.C. in the face.”

Laker Coach Pat Riley said he doesn’t believe that Green is allowing himself to be intimidated.

“He’s showing tremendous emotional stability,” Riley said. “If you watch him play, he’s not taking anything from anybody. He’s just not being dumb, and reacting like some power forwards in this league.

“A.C.’s been holding his own. He’s just not taking any crazy punches, the kind of stuff I think is insane.”

Riley said it’s no accident that the Lakers wind up in altercations such as Friday night’s.

“It sounds like a complaint,” Riley said, “but we always get pushed into things like this. I know exactly the philosophy of certain coaches in this league: ‘We can’t beat this team (the Lakers), we don’t have the talent, we’ve got to use these other tactics, get them frustrated, get them angry.’

“We’ve been fighting that for three or four years. That’s the book on us. . . . We have great athletes, and teams try to beat us and get us off our game by hammering us, and creating flare-ups.

“That’s one of the reasons we’re struggling right now. We’ve been winning, but we haven’t been playing our game because we’re not allowed to. No one’s going to allow us to anymore. But we’re not going to take it.”

The Lakers’ worst loss of the season came here Nov. 24, when the SuperSonics breezed to a 103-85 win. In that game, Cooper also interceded in an altercation, in which Seattle’s Xavier McDaniel had his hands wrapped around the neck of Laker reserve guard Wes Matthews. Cooper knocked McDaniel into the scorer’s table. None of the players in that incident were penalized by the league.

Riley, asked how he would compensate for Cooper’s absence today, said: “I’ll play Byron (Scott) 48 minutes.”

He sounded like he was kidding.

“I may play Wes or Milt (Wagner), depending on the matchups,” Riley said. “I may also play James (Worthy) in the backcourt. I’m comfortable I’ll get enough relief somewhere else.”

Cooper was asked to recall some of the afflictions he had played through in order to keep his streak alive.

“You name it, I played through it,” Cooper said. “Colds, flus, nights not wanting to play. A couple of years ago I had a very twisted ankle, and the trainer told me not to play, but I did.

“I’m here to play, not to sit around. That’s what Dr. (Jerry) Buss paid me to do. It’s like anyone going to work. They give you a job, you do it . . . unless you’re gravely ill.”

Or, it turns out, suspended.

“I’m glad to be with the team,” Cooper said. “This is a very big game for us, and I know they (the Lakers) are going to win this game.”