WATSON WEIGHS `TOUGH' DECISION.

Byline: KAREN CROUSE

ANAHEIM - Earl Watson is the leader of the UCLA basketball team and right now he's directing them straight into the NIT.

Where the Bruins are headed after their 72-67 loss Saturday to Georgia Tech seems so far from the Promised Land, they might as well be in purgatory. Watson, a savvy senior, doesn't need a compass to know which way to go from here.

``I can't hurt my team and I think right now I might be hurting my team by playing hurt,'' he said.

Watson tore a tendon in his right pinky three days before the first game of the season but hasn't missed a start. Indeed, the 6-foot-1 point guard has sat out only six minutes of a possible 205 for the Bruins (2-3) despite a precipitous dropoff in his performance.

Consider that in the first two games, Watson had 17 assists and just three turnovers. In the past three games, his assist-to-turnover ratio is 1:1. His shooting percentage has fallen from 52 percent in the first two games to 34 percent in the past three.

UCLA coach Steve Lavin has insisted on playing Watson like a broken record when the harmonious move would seem to be to start Watson but sit him for long stretches and let Ryan Bailey pick up the slack. In 14 minutes Saturday, the young man they call ``Moose'' showed himself capable of shouldering a larger load.

Along with who keeps recycling those holiday fruitcakes, it has become one of the enduring mysteries of this time of year: How can Watson recognize what is the smartest strategy before his coach?

While Lavin stood a few feet away saying Watson belongs on the floor because he's a warrior and because ``in the long term, when we're playing at our best, it's going to be with Earl as our point guard,'' Watson was making perfect sense through his sniffles (it nearly made him cry every time he looked at his line in the box score).

``I have to be the smartest person right now,'' Watson said, sporting a hangdog expression that made it clear he was mortified by his three-assist, eight-turnover performance. ``I have to be the leader of this team. I can't be selfish about it.

``I realize I can't be Superman,'' he added. ``Right now, my finger is bothering me a lot more than I realized.''

It certainly seemed to hamper him in the closing seconds of the game. After Jason Kapono and Bailey trapped Georgia Tech's Shaun Fein into coughing up the basketball in his own end, Watson missed a layup that would have tied the game and then lost the battle for the rebound to Marvin Lewis.

``I'm going to think about that shot every night,'' Watson said, staring at the mini-splint on his hurt finger. ``It's pretty hard to feel the ball, but that's not an excuse.''

The compact but cumbersome contraption on his pinky makes Watson feel as though he's trying to shoot with a mitten on. But three weeks ago it struck him as the best of his three options, the other two being a minimum three weeks rest or surgery.

Now, three games and 18 turnovers later, Watson isn't so sure. Even if it does make him squirm to even think about sitting out a game.

Saturday's Wooden Classic at the Arrowhead Pond was Watson's 102nd start as a Bruin. He hasn't missed an opening tip since he came west from Kansas City, Kan. The streak is no small point of pride for the guard.

For three-plus years, Watson has carried it from arena to arena like a badge of honor. Now he is wondering whether it hasn't become a curse.

``I've never missed a game, so it's very hard to think about doing it now,'' Watson said. ``When you have a streak like that, any time you do get hurt, you feel like you've got to fight through it because you know you've done it before.''

Watson went on, pouring out his emotions as though the notebook in front of him belonged to a therapist instead of a journalist:

``But maybe in the long term, it's not helping this team for me to think like that. If the best thing for the team is me sitting out until I'm healthy, then that's what I need to do. I'm so emotional. It's tough to make a decision right now.''

Watson shouldn't have to torture himself so. Lavin ought to have taken the decision (and the basketball) out of Watson's hands in the second half Saturday, after the player missed four of five shots and had six turnovers and two assists in his first 19 minutes.

How much proof does Lavin need that Watson is off-track?

``He wants to carry the load to help us win,'' Lavin said of his point guard. ``That's a very admirable quality that speaks to the size of his heart.''

We, too, admire Watson's spunk. But his straightforwardness is what really impresses us. He could yet lead the Bruins out of the trouble they've stumbled into, if Lavin will only listen to him.