Lakers Can Take Out Sonics, Not Van Exel : NBA playoffs: Guard has played 48 minutes in last two victories. Harris says there are plenty of timeouts.

Two consecutive high-pressure games, no break. Richard Kimble didn’t run that long without a breather.

“I know I’ve got to get some rest,” Nick Van Exel said Tuesday. “Keep my legs strong and healthy. I might have to go another 48. You never know.”

Then again, maybe you do.

He had his “easy” night in this first-round playoff series against Seattle when he played “only” 39 minutes at point guard in Game 1. Then backup Sedale Threatt was sidelined because of a strained abdominal muscle and, rather than let the SuperSonics’ relentless defense tee off on Tony Smith, a natural swingman, Laker Coach Del Harris turned Van Exel into the marathon man.

Forty-eight minutes in Game 2.

Forty-eight minutes in Game 3.

Guess what might happen Thursday night in Game 4, when the Lakers can win the series and advance to play the San Antonio Spurs.

“I’m going to be ready for it,” Van Exel said.

It would be understandable if he were crumbling under all the overtime hours while contending with Gary Payton, an especially difficult assignment since the SuperSonic All-Star is one of the NBA’s best scoring guards as well as one of its best defenders in the backcourt. But, as was the case during the regular season, Van Exel has flourished in the matchup he goes to great pains to play down.

He has starred, not stalled. Playing 135 of a possible 144 minutes, an average of 45 per game after going 36.8 during the regular season, Van Exel is averaging a team-high 21.7 points while shooting 46.3%, an improvement over his pre-playoff 42%. And he has done it while becoming the first Laker to play every minute of consecutive playoff games since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1979.

And that assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.7-2? The impact of playing an entire game Monday without a turnover cannot be underestimated.

“I thought he did a great job--in a high-pressure situation against a very good team--of controlling the ball,” Harris said. “There’s a lot of good defense out there against him. It’s quite an accomplishment, no question about that.”

And Seattle Coach George Karl had said his team did a good job of pressuring Van Exel in Game 3. Five-for-14 shooting, though, was the closest thing to dirt in the engine. Van Exel still helped break the SuperSonics by scoring nine of his 23 points in the fourth quarter.

Then came a break for Van Exel: two days off.

“We don’t have any games until Thursday, so he should be well-rested,” Harris said. “And then at that point, you just have to see what happens. But if it’s 48, it’s 48.

“I don’t want guys pacing themselves. If they run out of gas, you’d rather they come out. But there were 18 timeouts last night, counting your TV timeouts, your 20-second timeouts and full timeouts. Then you’ve got your quarter breaks, your half break, and these guys are in great shape. They can do this.”

One of them has proven as much.

“I can’t let this team down right now,” Van Exel said. “We’ve gone this far.”

Laker Notes

Cedric Ceballos suffered a dislocated ring finger on his left--non-shooting--hand during Game 3, but he said it did not present any problems. He finished with 24 points, eight rebounds and six assists in 43 minutes. . . . Del Harris, on the fans chanting “Ed-die! Ed-die!” as a show of support for Eddie Jones when the struggling shooting guard entered the game Monday: “That’s one of the classiest things I’ve ever seen a crowd do.”

Seattle’s Shawn Kemp is averaging 24.3 points and shooting 63.4% in the series, largely because no Laker has been able to stop him from establishing great position inside. In Game 3, the All-Star forward regularly was taking passes a couple of feet from the basket. “That’s why we changed a lot of people in there, trying to do a better job of keeping him from getting easy catches,” Harris said. “You just can’t allow NBA players to get the ball that deep in there. You’ve got to stay between the man and the ball much more than we have.”

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Series at a Glance

LAKERS vs. SEATTLE

* Game 1: Seattle 96, Lakers 71

* Game 2: Lakers 84, Seattle 82

* Monday: Lakers 105, Seattle 101

* Thursday: at Forum, 7:30 p.m.

* Saturday: at Seattle, 12:30 p.m.*

(Lakers lead series, 2-1) * If necessary