LET'S RETHINK BREAKING UP THIS TITLE TEAM.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmastime anxiety at the Lakers' practice gym in El Segundo, where they squeezed in a company party Monday before the team took off for a four-city trip, the results of which could determine if the front office shakes up the roster like a gift box.

While players insist as always that they pay no attention to trade speculation, at least one seems to have read all about why a deal might be impossible even if it's advisable.

``I told the guys last night, when we had our little (pregame) huddle, `Basically, fellas, we have no (trade) value, so let's just go out and have some fun,' '' Robert Horry said. ``That's what they say about us.''

As a rallying cry, ``We have no value'' rates somewhere below ``Win one for the Gipper'' and above Nick Van Exel's old verge-of-elimination ``1, 2, 3, Cancun!'' But Horry's sarcasm before the one-sided victory over Orlando on Sunday night does serve to illustrate the edginess surrounding the trade issue.

It would be hard for a player to ignore the threat that soon after the trip that begins tonight in Minnesota and the Christmas Day grudge match with Sacramento, Horry or practically any teammate except Shaquille O'Neal or Kobe Bryant will receive a lump of coal.

Thanks for your help on the NBA championships. Here's your Denver Nuggets uniform. Happy new year!

That's just the thing to help Lakers players concentrate on the increasingly difficult task at hand: the notion that if they don't right the ship during the trip that continues with New Jersey, Philadelphia and Toronto, then a trade will bail them out.

All of the other supposed ``turning points'' have turned out so well for the Lakers this season: Shaq's return from injury, Devean George's and Samaki Walker's returns from injury, the 30-point rally against Dallas, Kobe's criticism of teammates, Shaq's criticism of teammates.

So why not hand the players another psychological crutch?

It says here that the Lakers, from general manager Mitch Kupchak's office to the end of the Staples Center bench, should forget about a trade and keep looking within for the solutions to their problems.

This is not a team that knows it can't win a championship with the roster it has, or even a team that should have a serious doubt. This is the same roster that won its third title in a row six months ago, give or take a Tracy Murray or Kareem Rush. This is the same group that has faced crisis after crisis for three years and has always come through.

If you want to get sentimental about this, you'd say it would be a shame to break up these Lakers and deny them the chance for one crowning feat of emotional rescue.

Meanwhile, if you want to get practical about this, you'd say it's unclear what exactly a trade could possibly accomplish and at what cost. The Lakers' most pronounced weakness is their lack of sheer athleticism - speed, jumping ability. But the problems that have held them back in the first third of this season are so various and elusive that only a trade for the entire 1971 New York Knicks would guarantee hitting the mark.

The Lakers are 10-15 as they go into five games against 2002 playoff teams. Since it has typically taken 44 victories in the 82-game season to make the eight-team Western Conference playoffs, they'll have to go at least 34-23 (.596) the rest of the way just to stay alive for the title. If they fall on their faces in the next five games, they'll have to go 34-18 (.653) after that - a pace they were able to maintain over the entire schedule in six of the past seven years.

What's stopping them from doing that isn't lack of ability. They beat league-leading Dallas, however unlikely the circumstances that night. And, not to put too fine a point on it, they have won three of their past four games against teams in playoff position. After the Lakers' 107-84 victory Sunday, Orlando's Grant Hill said that as far as he could see, ``They are not struggling, they are the world champions.''

What's holding them back is an exaggerated form of the inconsistency that marked the championship seasons. We keep waiting for them to go on a 20-game winning streak when they have yet to produce a three-gamer. Just as impressive as discovering a magic switch would be persevering through a long stretch of winning two out of three over and over.

A trade would be a declaration that these players don't have it in them, and that's a cop-out.

To all a good night - just a little more often, please.