Lakers Improve Front and Center, Still Lose : Pro basketball: Bowie has another strong performance, but misses key shot as the Warriors win, 100-97. Divac recovers from injury.

It wasn’t fair, not on a night when Sam Bowie again came through as starting center pro tem and Vlade Divac had something resembling a regular work shift for the first time in three games. Then to have it come down to a missed shot by a Laker center.

If Bowie, who had made six of his previous nine shots and was instrumental in keeping the Lakers close in the fourth quarter, made the 15-footer, it would have meant a one-point lead with about three seconds to play. But when he missed, when a double-team by Golden State on the high post forced him out of his rhythm, it meant an eventual 100-97 victory for the Warriors before 11,477 at the Forum.

Winning for the eighth time in 10 games despite their skeleton crew, the Warriors improved to 6-2 on the road as Latrell Sprewell lofted a five-footer in the lane over Bowie with 18 seconds to lay. The Lakers decided against using their last timeout, saving it for an emergency situation that never came, and again attacked the mismatch that had been working so well, Bowie on the lane against 6-foot-9 Billy Owens.

When Sprewell charged over to double team, and with another Warrior in the area adding to the pressure, Bowie was forced to dribble out a few steps before lofting the fallaway jumper, which bounced off of the back of the rim.

“They put me in a situation where I had to put the ball on the floor, and that made me take a shot I didn’t want to take,” Bowie said.

Bowie finished with 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Divac, who had been hampered the previous two games because of a sprained right middle finger, had 12 points on six-of-eight shooting, seven rebounds and four blocks. He played for 23 minutes without pain, probably good enough to get him the starting job back when a six-game trip opens Tuesday at Detroit.

“From my standpoint, it felt good,” said Divac, who was only seven of 19 in the four previous games since suffering the injury in a practice. “But I’m disappointed we lost this kind of game.

“To lose a close game at home, that sort of hurts me more.”

Especially considering the way things began.

Only four teams had a worse shooting percentage than the Lakers at the start of Sunday play, but they opened the game by making eight in a row and scoring on their first nine possessions. That was worth a quick 17-6 lead.

The Lakers shot 66.7% in the first quarter, but Golden State made 57.9%, good enough to get the Warriors within 29-26. The Warriors went ahead at 48-47 on Chris Webber’s dunk.

The Lakers were shooting 60.5% by halftime, with Doug Christie and Sedale Threatt each going six of eight for 13 and 12 points, respectively. They also had the lead back, 58-56.

“The first half, quite frankly, I didn’t think we could play much better, with a couple of exceptions,” Laker Coach Randy Pfund said. “Offensively, we ran when we wanted to run. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stop them at the other end.”

The Warriors cooled down to 44% for the game. The Lakers shot 53.8%, but were out-rebounded again.

Christie finished with 19 points, tying Sprewell for game-high honors. Ten of Sprewell’s points came in the fourth quarter.

Laker Notes

The Lakers are 7-13 and have lost four in a row. . . . The Warriors are 11-8 without Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway and Sarunas Marciulionis, and Mullin might be back this week. “I don’t know that we could have hoped for doing any better,” Coach Don Nelson said. “In our wildest dreams, I don’t know we could have expected to do this well. But we are and we’ll take it.”