DIGNITY AT STAKE HATERS RELISH LAKERS' WOES, SO WHY NOT GO OUT FIGHTING?

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - The Lakers haters are front and center now, eager to see the Lakers go down in the most damning way possible, if only the Lakers would be dumb enough to give them the satisfaction.

They're wearing their ``Official Laker Hater'' T-shirts, with the reasons running all the way down the spine, beginning with ``Shaq is too big'' and ``Kobe shoots too much.''

They're scooping their ``Beat L.A.'' T-shirts off the first rack in the Pistons' arena souvenir store, the ones with the words stamped over Detroit's impressive riverfront skyline.

And they're eating up Detroit Free Press banner headlines like ``Kobe Who?'' (following Game 3) and ``L.A. Fakers'' (after Game 4), glorying more in the Lakers' looming failure than the Pistons' now-reachable triumph.

They want the Lakers not only to lose the game tonight, to give Detroit the NBA title in five in a series that was supposed to go five the other way, but to lose their composure and cohesion and thereby vindicate every critic.

So Game 5 isn't just about the Lakers' effort to salvage a game at The Palace and send the series back to Staples Center.

It's also about the need to salvage some pride if they should fail.

How far they've come from the summer when it appeared Karl Malone's and Gary Payton's free-agent contract sacrifices were buying a guaranteed title.

This was going to be the season in which the basketball nation discovered what new and exciting ways a team with four All-Stars could find to win a championship.

It has turned into the season in which we'll see how exactly the team that couldn't lose will handle defeat.

Not well, perhaps, unless it can improve on the fourth quarter and aftermath of the Sunday-night defeat.

Disarray is too soft a word for what befell the Lakers as the Pistons pulled away Sunday to an 88-80 victory that made it 3-1, a deficit from which no team has rallied to win an NBA Finals series.

There was Kobe Bryant arguing his way into the Lakers' third technical foul of the night, the free throw helping Detroit to its first 10-point lead with 4:52 left in the game.

There was Bryant prolonging his vain attempt to shoot his way out of a shooting slump, capping a night when he went 8 for 25 from the floor, firing more times than the consistently effective Shaquille O'Neal.

There was the Lakers' early quarter fouling and defensive laxity putting Detroit on the free-throw line repeatedly.

There was Phil Jackson frustrated by his inability to coach the sharp angles back into the triangle offense.

There was Jackson predictably blaming the referees for Detroit's victory parade to the foul line.

There was O'Neal subtly blaming Bryant for the bog.

There was the ongoing verbal tug-of-war over the Lakers' lineup, the leaders of the 2000-'02 threepeat arguing for the benching of Malone and Payton, Jackson resisting their request for changes.

And there were the constant expressions of sympathy for Malone, who's injured and in danger of seeing his coveted NBA title slip away again, the misguided premise being that in sports anybody who is so great should be entitled to anything in the way of luck or reward.

If the Lakers lose - tonight, or Thursday or Sunday in Los Angeles - they will be able to use Malone's knee injury as an excuse. They should resist doing so unless they're willing to acknowledge the breaks they needed to get this far. San Antonio goes into the summer believing it would have won if not for Derek Fisher's desperation shot, Minnesota believing the difference was Sam Cassell's injury.

Athletes play to win and don't plan to lose with dignity, which is why their behavior in defeat can be so revealing.

``I don't plan on finding out (how the Lakers might react),'' Rick Fox said Monday. ``But true character comes to the forefront in those situations.''

``(The Lakers have) never been in a championship series down 3-1,'' said Lindsey Hunter, the Detroit guard who was on the Lakers' 2002 title team. ``You see different reactions.''

Are the Lakers a fractured team, over-reliant on two stars, coached by a man ill-prepared for adversity, puffed up by their own sense of entitlement, ripe for defeat by a less-obviously-talented team emphasizing cohesion and defense like the Detroit Pistons?

That's the image promoted by the guys in the ``Laker Hater'' T-shirts.

The Lakers did little to dispel the notion Sunday.

They have one, possibly final, chance tonight.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Kobe Bryant, foreground, is trying to shoot his way out of a slump at the expense of Shaquille O'Neal, just another reason the Lakers are in dire straits going into Game 5 tonight in Auborn Hills, Mich. They trail in the best-of-seven NBA Finals 3-1.

Paul Sancya/Associated Press

(2) Kobe Bryant, left, was called for a technical foul Sunday for arguing with referee Jack Nies, and the Lakers imploded en route to their Game 4 loss.

Al Goldis/Associated Press