WITH SONICS, LAKERS SAFELY AT THE CONTROLS : PLAYOFF REASSURANCE: LAKERS CONTINUE TO HOLD SOLE TITLE TO SONICS.

Byline: Marc Stein Daily News Staff Writer

How good they can be and how far they will go are questions best tackled a few months after the Super Bowl.

For now, let it simply be said that the Lakers won't be sorry to see Seattle in the playoffs.

Home or road, day or night, blowout or nail-biter - it just doesn't matter. Whatever the variables, the Lakers have conditioned themselves to scoff at the Sonics' bravado and play as if they are the West's best team.

``I always like our chances against Seattle,'' the Lakers' Nick Van Exel said after Sunday afternoon's thrilling 104-103 triumph at KeyArena, where the visitors never panicked despite squandering all of a 21-point lead and giving Hersey Hawkins a chance to win it with a 3-point attempt at the buzzer.

``We know we can beat Seattle. They've got about five guys who can play, and that's where it stops.''

It wasn't merely the matchup with gabby Gary Payton that had the Lakers' quarterback at his cocky best.

Van Exel was entitled to some big talk after L.A. survived Seattle's comeback from a 51-30 deficit to claim its 11th win in 15 tries against the Sonics since Del Harris became the Lakers coach before the 1994-95 season.

The victory, secured when Hawkins' triple with eight-tenths of a second left bounced off the rim, also pushed the Lakers (31-12) a game ahead of the Sonics (30-13) at the top of the Pacific Division standings.

``Obviously, this was a playoff game,'' Harris said of a raucous atmosphere the ensuing NFL title game would struggle to match. ``Of course, we'll have fans that won't like it because we had a 21-point lead and won by one point. That's just something we have to deal with.''

In the winners' locker room, Harris' players seemed to be handling the harried ending just fine. They were considerably more upset with the travel itinerary the coach established - a flight to Dallas an hour after the final buzzer that denied them the opportunity to watch any of New England vs. Green Bay.

Early on, with Van Exel racking up 15 of his 25 points by halftime, it appeared the Lakers (31-12) were headed for the usual Super Bowl-sized rout.

Three straight dunks in the opening quarter - by Travis Knight, new starting small forward Robert Horry and the guy he replaced in the first five, Jerome Kersey - gave L.A. a quick 30-20 edge, and the lead swelled to 21 midway through the second quarter on Horry's 3-pointer.

The Lakers were up by 14 with 7:48 left in the third when the Sonics made their inevitable charge. In the fourth, Seattle actually grabbed the lead twice with Shaquille O'Neal (22 points, 11 rebounds) resting on the bench, but the Sonics never did better than tie it after Van Exel's 3-pointer made it 93-92 with 7:32 left.

Just when the Lakers looked safe, with Shawn Kemp (15 points, 13 rebounds) fouled out and a 104-100 cushion with 1:07 remaining, Payton (25 points, seven assists, four steals) struck. He stripped the ball from Van Exel and converted a fast-break layup despite being fouled by Eddie Jones.

That drew the Sonics to within 104-103 with 30.2 seconds to play.

From there, the Lakers had to survive a rookie gaffe by Kobe Bryant, who rebounded a Van Exel miss but went straight back up instead of pulling the ball out. When Bryant's putback missed badly, Hawkins had his chance for a last-gasp heave.

``I probably should have called a timeout,'' said Bryant, who did also snap a 100-100 deadlock with a running bank shot in the lane to beat the shot clock.

``It was just instinct. But you learn from those mistakes. I'm glad as hell (Hawkins) missed, I'll put it that way.''

Said a forgiving Harris: ``Kobe went through a full semester of college in the final quarter.''

During which the Sonics, the defending conference champions, fell to 0-6 against the other top contenders (Houston, Utah and the Lakers) in the West.

``I worry about it because you all are going to talk about it and you're going to create a perception,'' Seattle coach George Karl told reporters. ``The truth is that in a regular season, you learn a lot about who you are, but what you learn most in the regular season is what you have to be. And this team has always adapted.''

Except against the Lakers.

Layups: As expected, O'Neal was unable to overtake Houston's Hakeem Olajuwon in All-Star fan balloting and won't be a starter in the midseason classic for the first time in his career. O'Neal, who earned 1,305,941 votes to Olajuwon's 1,487,310, is sure to be named Tuesday or Wednesday as one of the West reserves, who are chosen by conference coaches (Jones is also a candidate). ``I don't get into that, who starts and who comes off the bench,'' O'Neal said. ``If (Washington's) Gheorghe Muresan got picked ahead of me, then I'd be ticked off.'' . . . Horry had to leave the game with a moderately sprained left ankle with 7:56 remaining after trying to block Detlef Schrempf's fast-break layup and landing on Schrempf's foot. The basket gave Seattle its last lead at 92-90. ``Whenever I do sprain my ankle, it usually doesn't last that long,'' said Horry, who expects to play Tuesday at Dallas.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: (color) A familiar sight - L.A.'s Shaquille O'Neal dunks against powerless Terry Cummings of Seattle.

Associated Press