FERMENT DEFENSE; TIRED OF WHINING, LAKERS SAY IT'S TIME TO UNCORK 2-0 DEFICIT.

Byline: Howard Beck Daily News Staff Writer

A bottle full of losses is not like a bottle of fine wine. It does not age well. It just grows more bitter the longer it sits.

Three days of contemplating their 2-0 deficit in the Western Conference finals and the Lakers were ready Thursday to stop pondering the lousy odds of a turnaround and more than a little antsy to attempt to do it.

The battle against history, not to mention the Utah Jazz, begins at 7 tonight at the Forum in Game 3.

Since Monday's fourth-quarter collapse in Game 2, the Lakers have been fed a steady diet of statistics and NBA history:

No team has won a Western Conference finals after trailing 2-0.

The Jazz has won eight straight series after winning the first two games.

Only one Lakers team - in 1969 - has overcome a 2-0 deficit in a playoff series.

No NBA team has won any series in any round after dropping behind 3-0.

It's enough to make a Laker, well, edgy.

``Edgy . . . testy,'' Rick Fox said of the team's mood the last few days. ``Testy is good, though. It makes everybody realize it's a situation where you win or go home. In the case with us, it's win or stay home.''

So the air in the Forum corridors has been a little heavier this week, the facial expressions a little more serious.

``It just hasn't been a party,'' Fox said. ``The last couple series, we've had fun in practice because we've been playing well. I think the tension of now being down 2-0, I think everybody senses the urgency to get back on track.''

It's a far cry from one week ago when the Lakers were heading to Salt Lake City riding high on their 4-1 series victory over the Seattle SuperSonics.

``This is a turnaround in a week that we obviously didn't visualize,'' Fox said. ``We visualized going into Utah and winning one, possibly two. So right now we've had to answer a lot of questions that we didn't expect we'd have to deal with.''

Questions like:

Can you defend against the Jazz's vaunted pick-and-roll?

Can you avoid another fourth-quarter meltdown?

Can a young team match the calm and composure of its veteran-rich opponent?

And, most of all, can you defy all odds and still win this series?

``There's people in Vegas thinking about that,'' Eddie Jones said.

The Lakers recognize the deficit for what it is, and so they are possibly testy, but not panicky.

``We were down 1-0 in the Seattle series and everybody was counting us out, saying that Seattle was so much better than us, but we came out and started playing better basketball,'' Jones said. ``We're confident. . . . I don't think you can ever take our confidence. You can drive screws into us and you still won't take our confidence.''

To win Game 3, the Lakers plan on sticking to what got them a nine-point lead in Game 2, only this time, sustaining it. They led Monday's game from tipoff until early in the fourth quarter, losing the lead only after they lost their focus and turned the ball over six times in the final 11 minutes.

Truth is, the Lakers still feel they had the game taken away from them by the officials, so they are curiously proud of what they accomplished in the 99-95 loss, coming as far as they did after the 112-77 debacle in Game 1.

But the fact, too, is the Lakers have been spotty down the stretch in this series. In both losses they have played the Jazz to a draw in the third quarter but lost the fourth quarter twice, by an average of 25 to 18 points.

After shooting 48 percent in the regular season and 51 percent through two rounds of the playoffs, the Lakers are hitting only 37.5 percent vs. Utah.

After averaging 104.5 points in playoff series vs. Portland and Seattle, they have posted 77 and 95 points in two games.

They hope to return to a more Lakers-like, up-tempo pace tonight. And they figure winning two at home to tie the series isn't much to ask.

``All we have to do is hold our home court and play .500 on the road, and we're a team that plays better than that on the road,'' coach Del Harris said.

And he thinks his team is ready to do just that, regardless of the odds.

``I don't see any panic,'' Harris said. ``I see them having a good positive approach. I think we had one of our best practices (Wednesday) and they were good today. Our guys feel like they actually won (Game 2), they think they played well enough to win the game. They feel they'll win here.''

OH (NO!)-AND-TWO

The Lakers have fallen behind 0-2 in a playoff series eight times since 1968, winning only once. The list and ultimate outcome:

'98 Conf. finals Utah ???

'95 Conf. semis S. Antonio L, 4-2

'92 First Rd Portland L, 3-1

'89 NBA Finals  Detroit L, 4-0

'79 Conf. semis Seattle L, 4-1

'77 Conf. finals Portland L, 4-0

'74 Conf. finals Milwaukee L, 4-1

'71 Conf. finals Milwaukee L, 4-1

'69 First RdSan Fran. W, 4-2

CAPTION(S):

2 Boxes

Box: (1--Color) LAKERS vs. UTAH

(2) OH (NO!)-AND-TWO (See Text)