PERTURBED PERIMETER; JONES, BRYANT AND VAN EXEL'S OFFENSE WAS MISSED IN GAME 1.

Byline: Howard Beck Daily News Staff Writer

It was as if someone stepped in and clipped 20 frames out of the Lakers' highlight reel from Monday night. The film showed Shaquille O'Neal's power dunks, but where were the Kobe Bryant one-handed jams over two bodies in the lane? The Eddie Jones frequent-flier-mile-generating flights from the baseline? The rally-starting, crowd-silencing Nick Van Exel 3-pointer down the stretch?

Poof. Gone. Skillfully excised by the film technicians of the Seattle SuperSonics.

The Lakers are down 1-0 in their best-of-seven series with the Sonics, and the Lakers' guards know where to look for answers. On the cutting-room floor.

Jones, Bryant and Van Exel, who averaged a composite 46 points per game this season, combined for 27 in Game 1. They collectively made 10 of 30 shots, including 2 of 10 in the fourth quarter.

``It's something we're all going through right now, but it's a long series, so there's a lot of time left,'' Van Exel said. ``Myself, I know I can snap out of it at any time. It's just a matter of when I'm going to do it.''

Still, he admitted, ``I was frustrated, because I had a lot of open looks that I should have knocked down. If I had knocked just a couple down, it would have been a different game.''

As the Lakers prepared for tonight's Game 2 of the conference semifinals, the game plan remained intact. Because, in truth, the usual offensive strategy - get the ball to Shaq, let him score or draw the double team and pass the ball - worked effectively in the loss.

O'Neal scored 27 points, close to his average. But the Sonics held him to two shots in the fourth quarter, and when O'Neal kicked the ball back to the perimeter . . . well, nothing happened.

``It's like a pitcher,'' said coach Del Harris. ``He may be throwing shutout ball for nine innings. But if the team doesn't score any runs, he won't win the game.

``It's a team thing, the the in-and-out game. When you have a dominating force like Shaq, he depends on his teammates. Just like they depend on him to give them opportunities, he depends on them to cash them in.''

It worked for 61 victories in the regular season, but the Lakers' best non-Shaq threats have gone cold for much of the postseason. Even as the Lakers won their first-round series vs. Portland, Van Exel, Bryant and Jones combined to shoot 36 percent from the field.

The lack of consistent production from the Lakers guards grows more glaring alongside the deadly outside shooting of the Sonics' Gary Payton, Hersey Hawkins and Detlef Schrempf. Seattle outshot the Lakers all season from 3-point range (45 percent to 25 percent), and the trend continued in Game 1 as the Sonics made 11 of 21 attempts from 3-point range, to the Lakers' 5 of 14.

Defensive scrums around O'Neal make for plenty of opportunities for the Lakers guards if they can only take advantage.

``It's going to be important, because we know Shaq ain't gonna shoot no 3s,'' Van Exel quipped. ``We know they're going to double-team, so . . . we've got to take it upon ourselves to knock the shots down.''

The Lakers vow not to get into a 3-point shooting contest, which they would surely lose. But they also know that O'Neal's 20-something points a night won't be enough to advance past the second round. The burden falls elsewhere.

``I think it's always our burden,'' Derek Fisher said, ``because we know what Shaquille is gonna bring. . . . So it's pretty much always our responsibility to step up and figure out a way to be effective.''

Payton, who has watched Jones and Van Exel burn him before during several years of this rivalry, expects a resurgence.

``Nick can get hot, Eddie can get hot,'' he said. ``Anybody with the kind of talent they've got on that team can get hot at any time. . . . I can't say they're going to miss shots like they did (Monday) night, because I don't think they are. When they get back to the Forum, I think those shots are going to go down.''

Harris figures that will happen a little sooner, say tonight, before his team winds up heading home down 0-2. And he cites precedent to support his contention.

``It's just like Game 3 (last week) in Portland - Nick and Kobe didn't have a normal night,'' he said, ``and in Game 4 they kicked butt.'`

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos, Box

PHOTO (1--Color) PAYTON

(2--Color) HAWKINS

(3--Color) JONES

(4--Color) FISHER

BOX: CAUGHT OFF GUARD

The Sonics starting backcourt of Gary Payton and Hersey Hawkins outscored, outrebounded and outplayed Lakers starters Eddie Jones and Derek Fisher in Game 1. A statistical comparison: