LAKERS ARE UNDERDOGS VS. SONICS.

Byline: Howard Beck Daily News Staff Writer

They could have stayed home a few more days, could have been armed with homecourt advantage, could have played an opponent they swept in the regular season.

Instead, the Lakers' are traveling again today, will have to win on the road and are playing the only Western Conference team to beat them three times this season. The same team that denied them the Pacific Division title. The same team that edged them out for a No. 2 seeding in the playoffs.

The same Seattle SuperSonics who have been making the Lakers' lives difficult all season now await them in the second round of the playoffs, which begins Monday night at KeyArena.

The best-of-seven series continues Wednesday in Seattle, then moves to the Forum for Games 3 and 4, Friday and Sunday.

Seattle's first-round Game 5 victory Saturday over the Minnesota Timberwolves denied the Lakers a presumably softer ride in the conference semifinals (they were 4-0 vs. Minnesota this season). But that's fine with them.

``I think going the hard way is what we need,'' Lakers guard Derek Fisher said. ``I don't think we need matchups against teams that we feel like we're superior than. I think we need to go into a series feeling like we're the underdogs, feeling like we have something to prove. Without that, we have a letdown, and that's been obvious throughout the season. I think this will be good for us.''

That sentiment seemed to be universal among the Laker ranks Saturday, shortly after they watched the Sonics-Wolves game, then ran through practice.

``It's only appropriate that we would play (the Sonics) at some point in the playoffs, after all the struggles that we've had the last few years as the best teams in the division,'' coach Del Harris said. ``It's probably the natural order of things.''

History draws a picture of a rich rivalry here. The Lakers beat the Sonics in the first round of the 1995 playoffs, and the Sonics have beaten the Lakers for the division title the last two years.

They were the only two teams to hold first place in the division at any time this season, and the Lakers spent the last three months of it trying to catch the Sonics. They tied atop the division with 61-21 records, but Seattle's head-to-head superiority landed them the division championship - to the dismay of Harris, who briefly campaigned for a ``co-champions'' title.

``By all rights, we ought to have to play it out,'' Harris said Saturday. ``We think we're better than they are, and they probably think they're better than we are. So let's go out behind the barn. That's what we used to do in the Midwest. I think they go in the alley here.''

And it should be a heck of a brawl. The Sonics won the first two games by an average of just 5.5 points and needed overtime in the second meeting. Seattle won the third meeting handily, but four days later, the Lakers finally drew blood with a 93-80 victory at the Forum.

And yet the perception remained throughout the season that the Sonics were the superior team, a perception the Lakers have one last chance to change.

``I think that's the question everybody is asking right now: Do you have something to prove against Seattle?,'' Eddie Jones said. ``We feel as though we gave them a few games. . . . We feel confident, we feel as though we can beat them, we've just got to go out and prove it.''

LAKERS VS. SONICS

1997-98 Regular Season Results: Jan. 24: Sonics 101, Lakers 95; Feb. 13: Sonics 113, Lakers 108 (OT); March 16: Sonics 101, Lakers 89; March 20: Lakers 93, Sonics 80

SERIES STATS

Points/game: Lakers 96.3, Sonics 98.8

FG%: Lakers 43.9, Sonics 46.3

3-pt. FG%: Lakers 25.0, Sonics 45.2

FT%: Lakers 65.9, Sonics 74.8

Rebounds/game: Lakers 45.3, Sonics 37.3

Turnovers/game: Lakers 16.5, Sonics 14.5

Leading scorer: Lakers, Shaquille O'Neal 30.8; Sonics, Gary Payton 22.5

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Box: LAKERS VS. SONICS (See Text)