LAKERS REACH NEW LOW\CLEVELAND 93, LAKERS 82.

Byline: Marc Stein Daily News Staff Writer

Beating the Cleveland Cavaliers is a legitimate achievement in today's NBA. Because that generally means outworking them.

Presented that double-edged challenge Saturday night, the Lakers failed to manage even a split.

They lost the effort war and the game, too, falling 93-82 to the gritty, gutty Cavaliers before 15,380 at the Forum, squandering the chance to stretch a winning streak to five for the first time all year.

The evening's notable statistic wound up being a season-low point total for the Lakers (21-18), helped along by the league's stingiest defense.

"There should have been enough emotion to play a game of basketball in front of our fans," said Lakers coach Del Harris, who saw "no energy and no focus" from his club.

Meanwhile, the top candidate to succeed Harris as NBA Coach of the Year just keeps prodding the undermanned Cavaliers to keep scrapping.

Cleveland doesn't have Mark Price or Hot Rod Williams anymore, or the injured Tyrone Hill and Brad Daugherty, but it has 21 wins in 29 games under Mike Fratello since an 0-7 start.

"They don't look on paper like a team that can do all the things they are doing," said Harris, who came in thinking that "we're playing the best basketball that we've played this year."

How true. On paper, the Lakers had won four straight and Danny Ferry was in a shooting slump that limited him to six points total in the previous two games.

In reality, Ferry totaled 19 points and 10 rebounds to halt the Lakers' run.

"Danny Ferry had more rebounds at halftime than our starting big people," railed Harris, who didn't have a starter with more than four boards. "We just weren't active."

Starting at power forward for Hill, who remains sidelined by injuries received in a hit-and-run car accident before the third game of the season, Ferry paced the methodical attack that also featured 16 points and 10 rebounds from Michael Cage and 19 points and 10 assists from Terrell Brandon.

The loss was sealed for the Lakers when, with 53.6 seconds to play, Brandon escaped from a trap in the backcourt to throw a full-court pass to the wide-open Cage for a dunk to make it 89-82.

"Not to take anything away from the game, but let me just start by saying that the pass Terrell Brandon made was one of the greatest passes I've ever seen," Fratello gushed.

A fourth quarter full of work was necessary because of a dry third for the Lakers, who had held their previous two opponents - the Clippers and Miami - to 12-point periods after halftime.

The Cavs scored only 18 in Saturday's third, but that was four more than L.A. And eight of Cleveland's points came in succession after the Lakers tied it 55-55, the first deadlock since 4-4, with Ferry hitting two jumpers in the spurt.

That eight-point margin held until the fourth, when the Lakers - using the untested combination of Sedale Threatt, Anthony Peeler, Eddie Jones, Corie Blount and Derek Strong to start the period - reeled off an 11-2 run.

Notes: Only the uniform has changed for Harold Miner, who made his first L.A. appearance in a Cleveland jersey sitting just as far down the bench as he was in Miami. The ex-USC All-American sat out seven straight games before Saturday's DNP and has even turned down an invitation to defend his slam-dunk title at All-Star Weekend. A two-time dunk titleist, Miner feels he has accomplished all he can in that competition. Ditto for Lakers forward Cedric Ceballos, the 1992 winner who doesn't anticipate entering again. "I'm retired," Ceballos said, "unless they invite all the former champions back. I'd do that." . . . Hill is on the trip and working out before games, but Fratello insists that the forward from Xavier, who made a surprising rise to All-Star status last year, still isn't ready to play. Saturday marked the first time Lakers reserve Derek Strong, a college teammate of Hill's, made contact with him since the accident. "I would have called if I had his number," Strong said.