LAKERS NOTEBOOK: STREAKS MAKE THINGS EASIER.

Byline: Howard Beck Staff Writer

There's more than just history being made by the Lakers with a pair of double-digit winning streaks this season. There is necessary progress toward retaining the league's best record, homecourt advantage in the playoffs and building momentum for the playoffs.

Heading into Friday night's game against Indiana, the Lakers already had the two longest double-digit winning streaks (16 and 13 games) in franchise history for a single season. In their record-setting 33-game streak season of 1971-72, they didn't come back with another double-digit string.

``The only way to get it done is to have winning streaks,'' coach Phil Jackson said. ``If you can string two together or three together in the course of a season that are double-digit winning streaks, you're on the way . . . You've got to be able to do that. Make your three-game winning streaks six-game winning streaks, etc. We've been fortunate this year to have this happen for us.

``It says a lot about the team because it means they can play consistently and for whatever reasons they can put together a string,'' he said. ``Now when you go in the playoffs, you only hope you can get a winning streak going, because of home-and-home (alternating of games) and the intensity of the games. But it's almost imperative that you be able to win on the road in the playoffs.''

--Unplugged: The NBA is again making a push to place microphones on coaches during nationally televised games, and Jackson is again resisting the concept, which the league is touting as a way to bring fans closer to the game.

TNT, which broadcast Friday's game, did not ask to put a mike on Jackson.

``Definitely I will have a problem wearing a microphone in a competitive game,'' said Jackson, who did consent to be miked in NBC's coverage of the All-Star Game last month. ``I'm going to withhold any statements on that until it gets to be more defined, and then say what I feel has to be said about it.

``I haven't been approached, and if I was going to be approached, I imagine there would be some lead time for it,'' he said, ``because it changes how you can coach. It just changes how you do your job. . . . I think that's pretty obvious.''

The NBA began putting microphones on referees for some national TV games earlier this season, a practice Jackson called ``ridiculous.''