BACK ON TRACK! LAKERS WIN, REFUTE DOUBT OF THEIR FIRE.

Byline: KAREN CROUSE

During the past couple of days, there had been this crazy rumor circulating around Staples Center. For a change, it had nothing to do with the relationship status of Jack Nicholson and Lara Flynn Boyle.

The word on Figueroa Street, spread by fans of the Philadelphia 76ers and one or a few of the players themselves, was the Lakers were softer than a relaxed perm.

Like most rumors, this one was built on a foundation as solid as the hot sand beneath our feet. The thinking was that since the Lakers had rolled through the West like a band of marauders, destroying Portland, Sacramento and San Antonio, they led a charmed existence.

Just because they didn't carry the Red Cross seal of approval like the Sixers, just because in the first three rounds they had been the broom and not the dust balls, sweeping their rivals by an average of 16.4 points a game, some people got this silly notion the Lakers were dilettantes.

The defending NBA champions responded to the sniping in a way that would have made Miss Manners proud. They didn't allow themselves to be drawn into a war of words. They waited to stage their rebuttal until Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Friday.

The answer should purse all those loose lips in Sixersville: Lakers 98, Philadelphia 89.

In evening the best-of-seven series at one game apiece, the Lakers were about as soft as their Man of Steel. You didn't need to hear that from us, though. All you had to do was look at Sixers center Dikembe Mutombo, who by the game's end was wearing Band-Aids on his right elbow and left fingers and Laker center Shaquille O'Neal's elbow imprints all over his body.

It's a small wonder he wasn't wrapped like a mummy, having absorbed more shocks, courtesy of O'Neal's bumps, than a car speeding along a dirt road. And we wouldn't be surprised if Mutombo's backup, Todd MacCulloch, is listed as probable for Sunday's Game 3 in Philadelphia because of post-traumatic stress syndrome after having two of his shots blocked by O'Neal in a 2 1/2-minute span in the critical third quarter.

``He's a hard guy to play against,'' MacCulloch said of O'Neal, who played as if he wants to justify all the chants of M-V-P that resonate for him inside sold-out Staples Center.

He keyed the Lakers' stifling third-quarter defensive effort that turned the game around, recording five of his eight blocked shots in that span.

The man-child who sees himself as Superman in sneakers finished with 28 points and 20 rebounds. The 76ers decided to double team O'Neal after he torched them for 44 points in single coverage in Game 1 and he made them pay by doling out a game-high nine assists.

It was hard to settle on which of O'Neal's feats was more impressive: his pretty passing, his eight blocked shots, his effort on the boards or the fact he played the final 6 minutes, 38 seconds with five fouls, meaning he was one whistle from having to sit out the rest of the game.

``Shaq again was phenomenal,'' Philadelphia coach Larry Brown said. ``Like he always is. He makes everybody better. He made some unbelievable plays.''

Arguably none was more significant in the final accounting than O'Neal's pass from the low post back out to the perimeter to Derek Fisher with 2:09 remaining in the fourth quarter and the Lakers' lead, which had stood at 13 only a few minutes earlier, down to three at 89-86.

Fisher, who missed all four shots he tried in Game 1, coolly sank a three-pointer to take the bounce out of the 76ers' step.

Starting shooting guard Kobe Bryant mirrored Fisher's resilience, rebounding from a substandard performance on Wednesday with a superb 31-point, eight-rebound, six-assist effort.

This may come as a surprise to the 76ers, but the Lakers didn't develop their ability to bounce back overnight. While Philadelphia's season was playing out like a season of ``M*A*S*H'' episodes, the Lakers were busy reviving ``Peyton Place.''

O'Neal missed eight games with an injured right arch, Bryant sat out 14 games with assorted injuries and ailments, and Fisher, the Lakers' defensive conscience, missed 61 games after having surgery on his right foot. And yet, the injuries notwithstanding, it was the fractured egos on the team that nearly did in the Lakers.

At one point, Laker coach Phil Jackson was calling out Bryant, who was calling out O'Neal. It was hardly the type of triangle offense the Lakers had hoped to showcase. The feuding didn't kill their season, it somehow made them a stronger, sounder unit.

Once they got done fighting one another, their fangs were plenty sharp enough to dig into their opponents. They bared their teeth at the 76ers Friday and Philadelphia backed off just enough to allow the Lakers to move in and squash the rumors of their imminent demise.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Kobe Bryant soars for a slam dunk in the third quarter of the Lakers' 98-89 victory Friday.

(2) Having recovered their respective grooves, Kobe Bryant, left, and Derek Fisher high-five during Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer