Laker Trip Ends, but Not Misery : Pro basketball: Road-weary Los Angeles gets badly outrebounded again in 109-92 loss in Miami.

By late Thursday night, the Lakers were on their way home, returning from the longest trip of the season to celebrate a blue Christmas and maybe hope that fellow last-minute shoppers don’t box out like Matt Geiger.

The journey through much of the Eastern Conference ended with a 2-4 mark and a 109-92 loss to the Heat before 15,200 at Miami Arena, just in time for the Lakers to regroup amid familiar surroundings.

Just in time for them to return to the Forum . . . . to play Houston and Seattle.

“We want to go home and get well,” Coach Randy Pfund said. “Then to have those two waiting for you.”

Sub-.500 teams, such as Philadelphia, Cleveland and Miami, have presented enough problems. The Heat, like most everyone else, did damage by rebounding, hammering the Lakers with a 57-38 advantage, pulling down an overwhelming 22 offensive rebounds alone.

Rony Seikaly had 14. Glen Rice and John Salley had 10 each. Geiger had six, but five of those, and all 16 of his points, came in the fourth quarter.

That doomed the Lakers, who stayed close through three periods, despite another night with the offense in first gear. They were down by only four points until Rice hit successive three-pointers, quickly turning it into a 10-point deficit.

There were few more signs of Laker life, at least until they converted Heat turnovers on consecutive possessions into two layups by Nick Van Exel, grabbing the momentum to make what only minutes earlier was an 18-point game into 11. Miami called time out.

But the Heat needed only two possessions to regain control. First, Steve Smith hit a three-point jump shot from the left side, part of his game-high 23 points. Then, after Anthony Peeler scored for the Lakers, Geiger rebounded Smith’s miss, put it back in, and was fouled. He made the free throw, quickly pushing the lead back to 15 points with 3:36 left.

At least the Lakers had somewhere to go besides down.

Home.

“It seems like we’re in a lot of games until early in the fourth quarter,” said Van Exel, who scored 13 of his team-high 16 points in the final period. “It just seems like we can’t play the full 48 minutes all the time. We need to go 48.”

Instead, they went to 9-17.

“The two things that stick out in my mind is the fact that we got a couple of games, which was crucial,” Pfund said in summarizing the trip. “We had to find a victory or two out on the road somewhere. The games we won, we looked like a basketball team. The discouraging thing was, the games we lost, we didn’t play like we could.”

Laker Notes

The Lakers played without Sam Bowie, who did not dress because of a sprained left knee suffered Tuesday at Orlando. Bowie was examined by Magic doctors that night and cleared and then practiced Wednesday in Miami, but was held out against the Heat because the Lakers want to make sure the soreness does not linger through several games. “Bowie being out was a big plus for us,” Heat Coach Kevin Loughery said. James Edwards took advantage of Bowie’s absence to play 14 minutes, make five of seven shots and score 12 points. Bowie is day-to-day. . . . Elden Campbell had four more blocked shots, the eighth time he has reached that number in his 19 appearances. Campbell has 15 in the last four games, including a season- high six Sunday at Cleveland. . . . The 57 rebounds was a season high for the Heat.

The Lakers continue to experiment with a motion offense, but only in practice. Coach Randy Pfund has yet to implement it during a game, though it remains a possibility because his two primary centers--Vlade Divac and Sam Bowie--are both good passers and three other starters--Doug Christie, Anthony Peeler and Nick Van Exel--all have experience at point guard. “It’s something I’ve had in the back of my mind all year,” Pfund said. “It could especially help Doug. I think Doug needs to keep moving. That might be part of his frustration.”