LAKERS NOTEBOOK: HAPPY TO ESCAPE DIN IN KINGS DEN.

Byline: Howard Beck Staff Writer

EL SEGUNDO - It didn't take long for the comforts of home to put the Lakers in a more relaxed mood. So relaxed, in fact, that they didn't hesitate to toss a few barbs at the city and the fans they just left behind in Sacramento.

Coach Phil Jackson said the Arco Arena crowd was loud and tough to deal with, but not the worst he's seen.

``I coached basketball in Puerto Rico, where when you won on the visiting floor, your tires were slashed, you might be chased out of town with rocks breaking the windows of your car. It's a different environment entirely. You're talking about semicivilized Sacramentans,'' Jackson said with a laugh. ``Those people up there just may be redneck in some form or fashion, but they're certainly not Puerto Ricans, who I love dearly, but they can become very rabid. In fact, I've seen guns and knives fall out of places they shouldn't fall out of in the fracases that follow.''

Ron Harper said his younger teammates might have been a bit scared, both by the playoff environment and the hostile surroundings.

``I mean, this is a time that you get scared. If you haven't been there before, you tend to just be scared, I think,'' he said. ``But we're back home now, so all the scary things of their fans screaming, and hearing the bells ring, and the cow bells, we're tired of hearing that junk. And the sirens going off. We're tired of that.''

Of course, there will be no such concerns at sleepy, cavernous Staples Center, where the Kings probably won't be intimidated by the chorus of ringing cell phones.

``I don't think our fans are going to be on their cell phones this Friday night,'' Harper said. ``I think our fans will know that we will need them Friday night. We need them to leave their cell phones at home and come set to cheer at a basketball game.''

--Kobe time: Kobe Bryant's offense took a back seat to Shaquille O'Neal for much of the regular season, but out of necessity he's scoring 30.5 points a game in this playoff series. Bryant's assists, meanwhile, have dropped - from 4.9 in the regular season to 3.0.

That might have been the basis for some of Harper's comments regarding breakdowns in the offense.

``We tend to have some guys who think they can do it by themselves,'' Harper said. ``There are times that they can.''

But Jackson said the scoring was needed and of the statistical trends said, ``I don't think you can read anything into it.''

``The assist part,'' he added, ``does bother me a little bit. There are assist opportunities for him there and things haven't happened.''

--Bench mobbed: The Lakers' bench held its own in Games 1 and 2 but has been outscored badly by the Kings' reserves the last two games. The Lakers say there's not much need for concern - they've survived on an offense of Shaq-Kobe-Glen Rice all season.

``It'd be nice for us to have a game where we can be maybe the offensive threats that everyone is looking for us to be,'' said backup forward Rick Fox. ``But that's not been the case all year, so we know where our scoring comes from. And its up to our reserves not to hurt the team in any way - in other words, taking care of the ball, playing defense, and we have to rebound the ball. And if they're going to double-team Shaquille and they're going to send three guys at Kobe and obviously not leave Glen, then those guys have to have enough faith in us . . . to throw it to the guys that are open.''