Amazing Lakers Win Yet Another : NBA: They learn of Divac’s surgery, then lose Campbell to ankle sprain, but somehow they make it nine in a row.

Something powerful beats beneath those Laker jerseys.

The time will come when heart won’t be enough, but it wasn’t Wednesday night, when they shrugged off the announcement that Vlade Divac was gone, lost Elden Campbell too, and fell 15 points behind--and still rallied to beat the Heat on Sedale Threatt’s 17-footer at the buzzer, 89-87.

They have won nine in a row without Magic Johnson, the last three without Divac, the last half of this one without Campbell--or 33% of their nine-man training camp rotation.

Afterward, they maintained the usual cool attitude, except for Byron Scott, exuberant in spite of himself.

“In my own mind, to be honest with you,” Scott said, “the way I look at it is, ‘Damn, we’re playing ball! ‘

“People are going to look at our record, 10-3, nine straight, and say, ‘Heck, that’s the Lakers, they’re supposed to win.’

“At this particular time, with the teams we’ve played and the people we lost, that’s not true. We’re winning games on determination, guts and heart.”

In this streak, the Lakers have defeated three teams that started the night with the NBA’s best record. They won at Golden State, held the Rockets to seven points in the fourth quarter and came from 11 behind to beat Milwaukee in the fourth quarter. But this game might have been their most remarkable.

With 4:35 left in the first half, the Heat, an impressive collection of young athletes, was stomping the Lakers, 49-34. The Lakers had held their last eight opponents to 92 points a game, but Miami was on a pace for 121.

Campbell had just gone down with a sprained left ankle.

There was no reason to believe that the Lakers had another comeback left in them--but they did.

In the last 28:35--the second half plus the last 4:35 of the first--they held Miami to 38 points. They slowed the Heat down, then took Miami out of its offense, then frustrated the youngsters into a late volley of wild shots.

They caught the Heat in the third quarter, then fell behind by nine at two points early in the fourth.

At this point, James Worthy returned to the game after a rare breather. With Campbell out, Coach Mike Dunleavy started A.C. Green in the second half, giving him two front-line substitutes, Jack Haley and Keith Owens.

Within the next 3:10, Worthy made a succession of big plays: a finger-roll layup; a fast-break dunk; a steal on which he led the break downcourt, dribbled behind his back and fed Threatt for a layup, and another steal on which he led the break and hit Scott for a dunk.

Scott’s dunk put the Lakers ahead, 81-77, with 4:07 left. They never trailed again.

The Heat, however, kept catching up, even after the Lakers took an 87-83 lead with 17 seconds left. Miami point guard Bimbo Coles scored on an uncontested layup, the Heat trapped Scott in the corner on the inbounds play, batted down his pass and tied it on Grant Long’s layup.

With eight seconds left, Mike Dunleavy designed a play for Sam Perkins in the post.

The second option was Threatt, who had taken four shots all night. Of the available Lakers, only Haley had taken fewer.

Surprise, Threatt had decided he was the No. 1 option.

“I knew he (Perkins) was there,” Threatt said, “but eight seconds, me and Bimbo--I knew it’s a mismatch.

“I just gave him left, right, step back and shoot.”

The ball hit the front rim.

Then it hit the backboard.

With :00.0 on the clock, it dropped through the net.

Scott, who said the Lakers were on cloud nine after their come-from-behind victory over the Bucks, said they were up to 9 1/2.

“I’m not going to say it’s easy keeping it together because it’s not,” he said.

“We lost Earvin. We lost Vlade. It might be me or James next. It doesn’t matter. We’re just going to keep going ‘til the season’s over.”

Of course, by that time he might weigh 150 pounds.

“No kidding,” Scott said.

Laker Notes

Elden Campbell’s sprain was termed mild to moderate. The Lakers say he will play Friday at Boston.