LAKERS REMAIN UPBEAT AFTER LOSS\SEATTLE 104, LAKERS 93.

Byline: Marc Stein Daily News Staff Writer

They cannot lose 22-odd points of offense, trail by 18 late in the third quarter on the road and still beat the second-best team in the league. Not yet, anyway.

Eventually? The Lakers think so, even after an evening that saw their string of away successes end while team officials frantically worked the phones to locate their AWOL top scorer.

"We feel great," said Nick Van Exel, who twice pulled the Lakers within six points in the fourth quarter Thursday night before the Seattle SuperSonics pulled away for a 104-93 victory in front of 17,072 at KeyArena.

"We probably feel just as great as they do except that we took a loss."

No matter how lopsided the score got (82-64), no matter how much trash Gary Payton talked (lots), no matter where Cedric Ceballos and his 22.4 points per game are right now (who knows?), the Lakers would not be brought down by this beating.

In their view, Seattle (51-15) played its top game, enjoyed a major advantage at the free-throw line in the first half (19 to 5, and they made all 19) and still couldn't put the struggling Lakers (41-24) away until the final minute.

"I don't think they can beat us in a five-game series," Van Exel proclaimed after the Sonics evened the season series at 2-2 by handing L.A. only its second loss in 13 road games.

Eddie Jones - who caused waves throughout the Pacific Northwest after the Lakers' 94-71 rout Tuesday at the Forum by saying, "I think we've got their number" - added that he'd "love to see them again in the playoffs."

Lakers coach Del Harris, a tad more modest, was satisfied seeing his club get back into the contest and "put ourselves where we had a chance to win."

That looked a long way off in the first half, when Van Exel and Jones got into immediate foul trouble and Magic Johnson, the best bench threat, was no longer on the bench.

Ceballos' disappearance required Johnson to make the first start of his comeback and his first since June 12, 1991 - Game 5 of the NBA Finals. He didn't shoot particularly well, missing 11 of 18 attempts, but lasted for a season-high 39 minutes on his notoriously tender right leg.