Lakers Look Inside for Biggest Answers : NBA playoffs: Divac, Campbell, Bowie are the focus and key to a rebound from Game 1 disaster.

The big kids on the blocks, once considered a Laker advantage but today nothing more than an empty boast, started to reclaim their pride and bodies on the day after, an act that could come only after the Seattle SuperSonics handed them their heads back.

More than Cedric Ceballos missing nine of 10 shots and scoring only two points, the inability of Vlade Divac, Elden Campbell and Sam Bowie to pull anything close to an inside job may have been the real undoing in Thursday’s 96-71 loss in the first-round opener. Coach Del Harris seconded that notion Friday by spending much of practice on post play, with some bottom-line instructions for Game 2 today at 12:30 at the Tacoma Dome.

Guards: Don’t throw the ball into the big men unless they are in good position.

Big men: Toughen up.

Twenty-one feet worth of nothing in the middle is not a shock. Not considering the 6-foot-11 Campbell is perpetually inconsistent, 7-1 Divac has been lately and 7-1 Bowie is fragile under normal circumstances and especially now that he has flu.

Then again, this is supposed to be a Laker stronghold over Seattle, which counters with all-star Shawn Kemp at power forward but inexperienced Ervin Johnson and 6-9 Sam Perkins at center.

Yet it was the SuperSonics who claimed the turf. They outmuscled the Lakers, pushing the big men out of the post and making them catch most entry passes about 10 feet from the basket, too far away to make use of superior size.

When the ball went back outside to a guard, the throws floated enough to allow the quick SuperSonics time to adjust their defense. Forced into playing a perimeter game from there, the Lakers wilted when only Nick Van Exel could make a shot.

“I said that I thought the key to this series would be the front line,” said Bowie, who had two points and two rebounds in 25 minutes. “The games that we beat them, we were able to take advantage of our size. But physically, they outmanned Vlade, myself and Elden, and that was the key to their success. Although we only got outrebounded by two, it was the way the game was played.

“They received the ball in the paint, and our post people, including myself, would receive the ball outside the paint. And that came because they were more physical than we were.”

Said Van Exel: “It was disappointing because we didn’t really get anything out of them. They (the SuperSonics) double-team very fast and the passes that the big men threw out were lobs and they were able to react and get to our offensive players.”

It was worse than that. It was, at times, panic.

“I think we are afraid of the double team,” Divac, who had 11 points and six rebounds in 31 minutes, said of the Laker big men. “We knew we were going to pass the ball after we caught it.

“I still believe we have an advantage. We just have to capitalize. We didn’t capitalize in the first game because me, Elden and Sam, we didn’t catch the ball down deep. We were very far from the basket.”

And even farther from a victory.

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Laker Notes

A day after Anthony Peeler started over Eddie Jones at shooting guard and Sam Bowie would have started instead of Elden Campbell at power forward if he didn’t have flu, Coach Del Harris was noncommittal about his Game 2 lineup. “I haven’t worried too much about the starting lineup,” Harris said. “We only had one guy play his game (Nick Van Exel), so it’s not like somebody jumped up and said, ‘Hey, start me.’ ” Bowie might help make the decision because he was feeling even worse Friday. “Playing the 25 minutes, I just feel achy and beat up and lifeless,” he said. But he expects to be in uniform today. “I can’t play any worse than I played,” Bowie said.

Barring an amazing recovery, Sedale Threatt is done for at least the rest of this series, maybe longer should the Lakers advance. He re-injured a strained abdominal muscle in the second quarter of Game 1 and didn’t even dress for practice Friday. “We certainly would rather play with him, but it’s not going to be a shock that we don’t have Sedale because he didn’t play the last part of the season and he missed all of January,” Harris said. The January injury was a stress fracture of the right foot.