ANOTHER GOAL IS REALIZED IT'S HOMECOURT ADVANTAGE FOR L.A. LAKERS 111, GOLDEN STATE 104.

Byline: Howard Beck Staff Writer

OAKLAND - Another season-defining moment was on the agenda Wednesday night, but as usual, the Lakers were in no rush to embrace it. Heck, they weren't even in a rush to win the game.

While the Lakers took their time putting away the Golden State Warriors at the Arena in Oakland, their closest rivals, the Portland Trail Blazers, were losing to the Houston Rockets.

When the Blazers fell, the Lakers automatically clinched the NBA's best record and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs.

But the Lakers, unaware of events in the Pacific Northwest, were not celebrating the occasion, and the only things chilling on ice in the fourth quarter were Robert Horry's gimpy knees.

And they labored through three quarters before deciding to put the game away and make it all official. With a patchwork lineup, 49 points from Shaquille O'Neal and a strong finish, they did, with a 111-104 victory over the Warriors.

At 64-12, with six games to play, no one can catch them.

But that's been the case all season for the Lakers, who have won 11 straight and 30 of their last 31 games.

``We knew tonight was a clincher, so we just had to come out and do the job,'' said O'Neal, 19 of 27 from the field and 11 of 16 from the line. ``We didn't do the job at all in the first half, but we were able to pick it up.''

Afterward, they took a minute to note their achievement, but that was it.

``It's just business,'' Derek Fisher said.

A moment to celebrate? ``No,'' O'Neal said. ``No, no. Never that. It's not over. . . . It means that we've done our job in the regular season.''

They finished it off without Horry, whose tendinitis kept him off the floor for the final period, and without Ron Harper, who got the night off. And they did it for most of the night without Kobe Bryant, who struggled in his first game back from a one-game suspension and finished with 16 points and 11 assists.

The rest of the heroics came from rookie Devean George, whose eye- opening performance netted him 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting, including 4 for 4 from 3-point range.

``Well, it's nice to have that one over with and to go on home and take a day off,'' said coach Phil Jackson. ``(The league's best record) is what we went after this year and we finally got it done.''

For a second straight night, there was little support from the supporting cast: Glen Rice got six points, Horry just two, and without O'Neal, the Lakers shot 40 percent. So the Lakers just kept pounding the ball inside to O'Neal.

``He's just about carried us all year,'' Fisher said of O'Neal. ``He's done more than be the MVP of this league. You can't really say enough about him.''

Donyell Marshall's 32 points paced the Warriors, who with a spirited effort took a 10-point lead in the second quarter and held the advantage throughout the second and third.

The Lakers didn't take the lead back until Bryant hit a 3-pointer with one-tenth of a second left in the third quarter, for a 77-75 lead to head into the fourth.

Brian Shaw and George opened the final period with back-to-back 3- pointers, and the Lakers raced to a 10-point lead, 87-77. The Warriors mounted a late charge that cut the deficit to 102-98 with less than three minutes to play, but the Lakers held off the charge, with nine points from Bryant and O'Neal down the stretch.

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Chart: GAME RECAP