[0] SUNS SET AT FIVE LAKERS' `D' ENDS SERIES IN STYLE.

Byline: Howard Beck Staff Writer

Here they come again, those survivors of both small tremors and big-time temblors, the ones who keep slipping and tripping, offering pratfalls at inopportune times but always regaining balance just in time.

Here come the Lakers, dancing elegantly back into championship form, all prior bumbling nothwithstanding.

Just two days after plummeting to their worst loss of the postseason, the Lakers rose once more Tuesday night and put everything right with an 87-65 rout of the Phoenix Suns at Staples Center to win the series and advance to the Western Conference finals against the Portland Trail Blazers.

In dismantling Phoenix to finish off the series, 4 to 1, the Lakers reversed every poor image cast in Sunday's 117-98 Suns rout at Phoenix. The Lakers went back to winning with defense, holding Phoenix to an all-time low for a Laker playoff opponent. The previous low was 68, by Seattle in 1998.

It allowed the Lakers to rest easy on offense. Kobe Bryant led the way with a mere 17 points, and Shaquille O'Neal needed just 17 points - 20 below his series average - to get the victory.

Glen Rice added 14 points, and the role players did the rest.

So the Lakers move on to the anticipated battle royale with the Trail Blazers. Game 1 is scheduled for at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday at Staples Center.

But while the Blazers arrive with a new air of dominance - by virtue of a 7-2 postseason record and several routs of the Utah Jazz - the Lakers advance having again had their reputation scuffed.

The Lakers needed five games to put away Sacramento and withstood two close games and a rout by Phoenix. None of it presents a concern to coach Phil Jackson.

``When you're playing one good team every four games in the NBA and have to rise to the occasion to play that team and run off a couple strings during the course of the (regular season), I know it doesn't look very handsome . . . . but you don't have that in the playoffs, especially in the West, where various dominant, good teams are. To be up 3-1 in the series to me is just fine,'' he said.

Jackson also might have understated matters a tad when before tipoff he offered, ``I think we'll be competitive.''

They were all that and more. Active, aggressive, intolerant of any sort of Phoenix offensive. The Suns scored just nine points in the second quarter, had 23 at halftime and managed just 17 in the third quarter.

Phoenix went 11 minutes and 8 seconds without a field goal from the second to third quarters.

And as if to make their statement to the Suns perfectly clear - ``Excuse us, but we're a little peeved about that pounding we took Sunday, and we intend to make you pay dearly'' - O'Neal capped the third quarter with a floor-shaking knockdown of a driving Rodney Rogers at the buzzer.

It earned O'Neal a technical foul and a trip to the bench, where he remained for the fourth quarter - checking out with 15 points, 21 rebounds and three blocked shots.

So maybe the Lakers found that missing ``mean streak'' Ron Harper was talking about.

The Suns merely lost their way.

Rather than enjoy their Sunday rout, the Suns spent two days simmering over Harper's other postgame comment - that the Lakers would ``beat the (bleep)'' out of the Suns in Game 5. But come game time, the Suns showed more ire than fire, while the Lakers made Harper look like a prophet.

``I don't know whether it's the team or the (Arizona) newspapers creating it,'' Jackson said of the Harper-inspired controversy. ``They probably need some motivation, and this is a good way to get it. There's always a way to keep the fire burning.''

Instead, the Suns made a little history as the Lakers took a 49-23 halftime lead. Phoenix's scoring output tied the NBA playoff record for lowest-scoring half and established a new playoff low for a Laker opponent.

O'Neal's first-half defense played a major role, as he collected 13 rebounds and two blocked shots. But left the scoring to Bryant, who hit 6 of 10 shots for 13 points in the half. The Lakers spread the rest of theoffense around: 9 points from O'Neal, 7 from Glen Rice and 6 apiece from Robert Horry and Rick Fox.

Phoenix's only lead was 4-2, and the Suns were competitive for the first 10 minutes of the game. The Lakers controlled the end of the first quarter to take a 21-14 lead, then carried the momentum straight into the second quarter, opening with a 12-2 run.

That was all the Suns, suddenly down 17, could take. They trailed by double digits for the rest of the half, and the Lakers took a commanding 49-23 lead into halftime.

It was the Suns' lowest-scoring half in franchise playoff history - or, to put it more starkly, less than half of what they scored in the first half of Sunday's Game 4 win at Phoenix, when they took a 71-48 lead.

No Suns player scored more than Clifford Robinson's 5 points, as Phoenix made 8 of 37 attempts from the field (21.6 percent).

BY THE NUMBERS

23

Points scored by the Suns in the first half of Game 5, ties NBA playoff low. The Suns scored 71 points in the first half of their game 4 victory.

30.2

Scoring average for Shaquille O'Neal in the best-of-seven series.

2-2

Lakers' record vs. Western Conference Finals opponent Portland this season with each team winning one road game.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo: (1 -- color) Lakers forward Robert Horry gets a hand on layup attempt by the Suns' Corey Blount during second quarter Tuesday night.

Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press

(2) Kobe Bryant of the Lakers sweeps past Suns guard Jason Kidd in the first half of Tuesday night's Western Conference playoff game at Staples Center.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

Box: By the numbers (see text)