ANOTHER STEP IN RIGHT DIRECTION LAKERS WIN THEIR THIRD IN A ROW LAKERS 115, CLEVELAND 99.

Byline: Howard Beck Staff Writer

It will be weeks still before the Lakers can completely expunge the lingering doubts and fading scars accumulated over two months of bad basketball and worse interpersonal skills. It probably will be longer still before anyone beyond Chick Hearn Court believes they can extend their championship run to four.

This much, however, they have proven: They are again capable of beating up on bad teams, and though it's not the greatest accomplishment, it stands as real progress.

The Lakers thoroughly dominated the Cleveland Cavaliers for three quarters Friday, then held on for a 115-99 rout at Staples Center.

If it doesn't sound like much, then consider that the Cavaliers handed the Lakers their most ignominious defeat of the season in early November, a 19-point loss in which the Lakers recorded the franchise low in scoring.

Now they are routinely rolling over the Clevelands and Torontos and Denvers to build a modest sense of momentum before the All-Star break. With Friday's victory, the Lakers have their first three-game winning streak since sweeping the New Jersey Nets in the Finals last June.

They have won six in their past eight games and at 16-20 are within four games of .500 for the first time since Dec. 8.

Shaquille O'Neal led the way Friday with 26 points, seven assists and six rebounds in just 31 minutes of work. Kobe Bryant, fresh off his record-setting 3-point party, scored a more- modest 21 points and turned in his fifth triple-double of the season.

Cleveland arrived as the worst team in the league, with a record under. 200, and though the Lakers have little right to be overconfident anymore, coach Phil Jackson nevertheless worried about a letdown.

``I'm concerned,'' he said before tipoff. ``It's just a matter of being prepared and aggressive enough in a situation like this.''

The losing record notwithstanding, these are good times for the Lakers. They're beating up on bad teams again, the old confidence is returning and suddenly everything seems to work right.

O'Neal's mouth is now making more headlines than his health or his weight, Bryant is finding new ways to dazzle each night and the supporting role players they once derided are no longer hanging their heads while chanting, ``We're not worthy!''

Derek Fisher and Samaki Walker were in double digits by halftime as the Lakers opened an early 16-point lead. Fisher and Rick Fox finished with 13 points each, Walker with 12 points.

Bryant registered the eighth triple-double of his career, with 21 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds.

It wasn't as flashy as the NBA-record 12 3-pointers Bryant dropped on Seattle on Tuesday, but just as effective.

The Lakers pulled away for good late in the first half, with Fisher scoring 11 points in 2 1/2 minutes, and Bryant assisting on all four of his baskets, including three 3-pointers. Bryant also hit Slava Medvedenko for a bucket during that stretch, and the Lakers took a 65-49 lead into halftime.

The offense was already humming, to the tune of 18 assists on 24 baskets.

If Bryant was tempted to flex his 3-point muscles again, he did his best to restrain himself. He attempted just two shots from the arc in the first half and missed them both.

``If an opportunity presents itself to shoot the 3, I'm going to shoot it,'' Bryant had said. ``I've been working extremely hard on my outside shot.''

But the lanes to the basket were wide open Friday, and Bryant found it far easier to simply dunk away against the Cavaliers, and their trash-talking shooting guard, Ricky Davis.

Before their November meeting, Davis had shrugged off the defensive assignment against Bryant, calling it ``a walk in the park.''

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