NO JUSTICE, SAYS OLAJUWON.

Byline: Scott Wolf Daily News Staff Writer

It was the Dream's worst nightmare, even if it lasted just 10 minutes.

For those 600 or so seconds of frustration, Hakeem Olajuwon became about as useful to the Houston Rockets as Jack Nicholson. He was a resident of a never-never land for superstars - the bench.

But that is precisely where a shocked Olajuwon sat after fouling out with 10:05 remaining in the Lakers' 104-94 victory over the Rockets before 17,505 at the Forum on Saturday afternoon.

So it was natural that Olajuwon emerged from the showers steaming over his situation.

``Getting calls like these kind of calls today, the trust is lost. What is justice?'' Olajuwon said. ``I've been playing smart to stay in the game. What can you do? The way they called the fouls, there was no way I could stay in the game.''

The bench is simply not the place a man acknowledged as one of the league's top three players spends a playoff game. It was 1987 when Olajuwon last fouled out in the postseason.

This season, he had yet to be disqualified. That's no surprise, because it is almost unheard of to see a marquee player foul out of any NBA contest, let alone a playoff game.

``How many fouls did you see out there?'' Olajuwon said. ``If they are sincere with the calls, only God knows. What can you do in that situation? You cannot even communicate with the referee. All you can do is play the game the best way you know how.''

``I think there's a couple guys in the league that are not supposed to get calls like that,'' forward Robert Horry said. ``I saw a guy on TV last night named MJ (Michael Jordan) and he wasn't getting any fouls called against him.''

Although the manner in which he picked up his fifth and sixth fouls in a 19-second span of the fourth quarter brought the most attention, Olajuwon was equally upset about the previous four.

The fourth foul was originally called on Rockets forward Chucky Brown but then changed to Olajuwon. And his fifth infraction came after Eddie Jones fell while the pair went for a loose ball. Asked if he intentionally hit the deck, Jones said ``I won't disclose my secrets.''

Naturally, coach Rudy Tomjanovich could be second-guessed over why Olajuwon was even in the game with five fouls. After Olajuwon was tagged with No. 5, Tomjanovich did not immediately send in a substitution and play was allowed to resume. Nineteen seconds later, Anthony Peeler, stunned to see Olajuwon remaining on the court, drove straight for the basket with the intention of drawing a foul from him.

Peeler succeeded.

``It was a very unfortunate situation,'' Tomjanovich said. ``We had a guy going in at the next possession. I can't ever remember that happening.''

Said Peeler: ``When I saw him in the game I couldn't believe it. I was thinking he left the game already. Then when I saw him down there, it was even better.''

The Rockets trailed 76-71 when Olajuwon departed. Although they stayed close, it was evident they missed their go-to guy of the past 12 years.

``It was hard on us because we're used to using him at the end,'' Horry said.

Olajuwon was not completely discouraged. He felt the loss was because of the Rockets' poor play, rather than being outclassed by the Lakers, who evened the series at 1-1.

``We gave them the game. They didn't beat us. That's encouraging,'' Olajuwon said. ``We beat ourselves. If we play the way we played today we'll lose every game.''

Especially with Olajuwon on the bench for 10 minutes.