This Test Is a Snap for Lakers : Pro basketball: L.A. beats Spurs, 97-80, for fifth win in a row.

If this was a test, the Lakers whizzed through it and the San Antonio Spurs flunked so badly, they were kept after class.

The Lakers, returning to quality competition after beating up on several tomato cans, dropped San Antonio, 97-80, Wednesday night before 17,210 in the Forum, running their winning streak to five games.

They play next at Phoenix, then return home to face the Detroit Pistons. If San Antonio was reading, here come writing and arithmetic.

“That was a big game,” Laker Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “No getting around it, we won five games out of the last six, but the only real good ones in that stretch were Golden State and Houston. The other games, you’re supposed to win.

“This was a test against a team that we played earlier in the season and basically folded in the second half.”

The Lakers held the Spurs to 34% from the field. David Robinson missed 13 of 19 shots.

Terrific Laker defense, or what?

“It wasn’t the defense,” said Spur Coach Larry Brown. “Just an awful effort on our part.

“We got a chance to come into a building and play against a great team. I didn’t care about winning. I wanted to see us play hard and I didn’t see that. . . . I’m really disappointed.”

Brown kept his dressing room closed for an extra 10 minutes to tell his players how disappointed he was.

The game belonged to the Lakers almost from the beginning, with hints of that big lead they blew at San Antonio in the season opener.

They led by 18 points in the second quarter, only to see the Spurs cut it to 10 at the half.

They led by 24 in the third quarter, only to see the Spurs cut it to 13.

They led by 20 early in the fourth quarter, only to see the Spurs climb to within 12. At that point, Terry Cummings came down and fired from behind the three-point line. The ball clanked off the side of the rim, and the Spurs finally sank.

For the Spurs, the day started early, at 6:15 a.m. in Seattle, where they had won the night before. A two-hour plane flight, a couple of bus rides, a nap and they were raring to go, they said.

“It’s a lot easier to get up after a win,” Brown said before the game. “You come in here, you should be excited to play against the best.”

Who was that, the 6-5 Lakers or the 8-3 Spurs? “We’ve got a long way to go before we can talk like those guys,” Brown said. “They’ve done it.”

Well, the game wasn’t as exciting as Brown had hoped. The Lakers hit his team with an 11-0 run in the first quarter and a 10-0 run to begin the third.

After that, it was just a matter of maintaining their poise. This time, the Lakers managed.

So the team that started 1-4 has since gone 6-1.

“Which do I hope is the real Lakers?” said Dunleavy, late Wednesday night, laughing again.

Guess which.

Laker Notes

The non-sellout was the Lakers’ eighth of the season. They sold out a team-record 35 of 41 games last season. . . . A.C. Green had another good game in a substitute role: 14 points, five rebounds. In his last two games, he has 29 points, 22 rebounds. . . . Mike Dunleavy: “Coming in, a lot of people told me A.C. couldn’t come off the bench. . . . In Dallas, I got him up, woke him out of an afternoon nap to tell him I wanted to talk to him in his room. When I told him, he said, ‘Whatever you want, Coach.’ A.C. is a terrific guy. I expected him to say what he said. Still, I know it’d be difficult for him.” . . . Seen in the Laker dressing room: rookie Elden Campbell, with a book titled “The Thinking Man’s Guide to Eating Right” at his feet, munching sour cream potato chips and drinking Hawaiian Punch 1 1/2 hours before the game. . . . Spurs have lost reserve forward Sidney Green for four weeks with bone spurs in an ankle. . . . Spurs’ Reggie Williams, the former Clipper disappointment subsequently dumped by Cleveland, started the night with an 8.5 average and a 70% average from three-point range. “I think he’s with a young group of guys and they’ve made him feel comfortable,” Spurs Coach Larry Brown said. “He didn’t have to go through that pressure situation. When we got him last year, it was hard for him to get through a practice the first week. We’ve tried to accentuate the positive with him.”