REID IT AND WEEP - THIS IS J.R.'S TEAM.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

Whose team is it?

That old question deserves a fresh answer, now that the Lakers have made up their minds at last what sort of team they want to be.

Shaq's team? Kobe's team? How unoriginal. What have O'Neal and Bryant got besides 46 points a game and $191 million between them?

Here's a new suggestion:

The human symbol of the new Lakers averaged five points for them in the regular season, didn't lead the team in any statistical column in any game, and is the member of the starting five whom fans would have the most trouble naming.

It's J.R. Reid's team.

They are a team of vagabonds, and none of them embodies that spirit more than Reid, who played his way through San Antonio, New York, Charlotte and even France on his way to the Forum.

They are a team that pledges a one-for-all, all-for-one commitment to winning, and none of them gets less glory or seems to worry less about it than Reid.

They are a team that proposes to rise or fall on their defensive effort, and none is playing a more important defensive position with more determination than Reid.

If the Lakers aim to go far beyond the first round of the NBA playoffs, their stars will do well to emulate their leading character actor.

``That's the kind of team we are,'' point guard Derek Fisher said when he was asked about Reid after a practice session at the Forum. ``A bunch of guys who could be doing more (elsewhere) who are sacrificing for the good of the Lakers.

``That takes a lot out of a guy, to have to do that without complaining about it or feeling you're being taken advantage of.''

But Reid is doing it.

This isn't how he figured to pursue his first NBA title.

Reid came to the league with potential-star credentials, taken fifth overall by the Charlotte Hornets in the 1989 draft after three seasons at North Carolina in which he was a consensus All-American and MVP of the ACC tournament.

The Hornets found out quickly they'd spent that high draft pick on a player with regional appeal and an even more limited game.

Know that stat about Elden Campbell, how his scoring average went up for six straight seasons with the Lakers? Reid is the opposite, his average having gone down for six straight seasons from '90-91 to '97-98.

For the '96-97 season his best contract offer came from a French team, and he played there, winning a championship.

Back with the Hornets, he briefly turned back into a star early this season. With Glen Rice out with an elbow injury, the offense went through Reid and he was getting 15.2 a game.

Then came the trade that brought Reid, Rice and B.J. Armstrong (soon waived) to the Lakers and sent Campbell and Eddie Jones to the Hornets.

``At first I didn't know if I'd like it,'' Reid said this week. ``I knew, coming here, I wasn't going to get a lot of shots. It's a lot different.''

At first he sat and watched Dennis Rodman start at his position - Reid reliving his experience with the San Antonio Spurs - and sometimes played behind Travis Knight, too.

``That's kind of like (going from) college to the pros again,'' Fisher said, commiserating. ``It's like going from conference Player of the Year to averaging two points a game.''

But Knight blew his shot at starting and Rodman was released. With 10 games to go in the regular season, Reid became a starter.

Since then, he's had to hear how the Lakers would be better if they still had Rodman and Campbell, talk he dismisses as ``the media - it's always something.''

On a one-year, $780,000 contract, with a chance to go free-agent this summer, Reid also brushes aside the suggestion his time with the Lakers is a temporary inconvenience.

``It's a good team and we're winning. Any situation like that, it's good for me,'' he said.

Whether the Lakers will want him back, Reid thinks, ``all depends on how we do (in the playoffs).''

In his 10th year in pro basketball, he is playing the role of a lifetime, assigned by a marquee team desperate for a title to throw his stringy 6-foot-10 body up against three of the NBA's leading forwards.

Reid has guarded the Houston Rockets' Charles Barkley with mixed success in the first round, which the Lakers lead 2-1 going into this afternoon's game at the Compaq Center.

And if the playoffs proceed according to the seedings, he'll get the Spurs' Tim Duncan next and the Utah Jazz's Karl Malone in the Western Conference finals.

``That's just part of being a power forward in this league,'' Reid said with a shrug.

Complaining? Taken advantage of? Counting his ``touches''?

Not Reid.

``I think J.R. wouldn't trade where he is right now,'' Rice said. ``He's got a legitimate shot at winning a championship.''

Whose team is it?

It belongs to anybody who thinks the same way.