[0] LAKERS KNEW WHAT THEY HAD TO DO.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

The TV set at one end of the Lakers' locker room has been playing the same videotape over and over the past few days, a tightly edited loop of Houston Rockets scoring plays from the regular season, each flying by as quickly as a Kurt Rambis nightmare.

The tape wasn't merely a scouting tool, it was a scare tactic.

There was Charles Barkley backing in for a layup. And Hakeem Olajuwon hitting a jump shot. Barkley again. And Scottie Pippen slashing through the lane. Barkley again. And Sam Mack nailing a 3-pointer. Barkley again. And so on.

At that rate, the Rockets must have averaged 200 points a game this year.

Only in comparison to that rapid-fire video did the Lakers slow down the Rockets in their series-opening victory the other day.

Even as they celebrated that one-point win, the Lakers knew there was reason for worry, knew they wouldn't win many more playoff games if they kept giving up 100. They had to improve their defense.

Tuesday night, they responded to the challenge, improving their ``D'' to an ``A'' in a 110-98 victory at the Forum that gave the Lakers a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series.

``Their shooting, man. Their shooting,'' Kobe Bryant had said before the game when he was asked what worried him most about the Rockets.

Fortunately for the Lakers, by the time the Rockets' shooters found the range, pulling the visitors close to the 100 mark in garbage time, they already were out of the game.

In the Lakers' best defensive quarter of the season, they took a 31-12 lead after 12 minutes as the Rockets made just 23.5 percent of their shots and got a big fat zero from Barkley.

It had to be frightening for the Rockets, who came out of Game 1 full of confidence, thinking they'd let one slip away, only to run into improved Lakers in Game 2.

Thirteen more wins like this, and some of us will be convinced the Lakers are NBA-title material.

Good defense can be hard to explain. Rarely can you put a face on it, as Shaquille O'Neal did with his last-second block of a Cuttino Mobley layup on Sunday, as Derek Fisher did by diving for a steal seconds earlier.

Maybe that's why it's hard to teach NBA players the importance of defense. There's so little star potential in it.

``Defense is a team thing. It's a developmental (practice) thing,'' Rambis said the other day. ``Players have to learn to trust that somebody is going to get their back.

``That's the stage we're trying to get to. That's why it's so important for a coach to have a team that's tied into each other. To me that builds teamwork faster than anything you do on offense.''

But if good defense is hard to define, bad defense can be plain to see.

Giving up 100 points is a bad sign in this era of shrinking NBA scores.

The Lakers' 101-100 victory Sunday made them the only team to give up three figures and win in this NBA postseason. There won't be many more.

Giving up 100 has meant trouble for the Lakers: When they gave up 100 or more in games against playoff-bound teams this season, they went 2-11.

Scoring 100 has meant success for the Rockets: When they put up 100 or more in games against playoff-bound teams this season, they went 6-0.

That described the Lakers' task Tuesday.

Post-Game-1 self-assessments of the defense had ranged from ``up and down'' (Fisher) to ``pretty good'' (Glen Rice).

They couldn't stop Barkley. They let the Rockets hit 52.1 percent of their shots.

Tuesday, though, their interior defense improved, holding Barkley to 19 and Olajuwon to 8 and the Rockets under 40 percent.

The Rockets' only breath all night came from their guards, who hit five straight 3-pointers to briefly cut the Lakers' lead to single figures in the second quarter.

Otherwise, the Rockets made that videotape in the Lakers locker room look like a work of fiction.

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) Houston's Scottie Pippen reaches in as Kobe Bryant delivers a pass.

Gus Ruelas/Daily News

(2) Houston's Charles Barkley tries to fight through the defense of Glen Rice (41) and Robert Horry in the first half of the Lakers' win.

David Sprague/Daily News