Lakers Need a Heads-Up Effort : NBA playoffs: With L.A. coming off an emotional loss, Game 3 against Spurs tonight at Forum is crucial.

The tears have dried and the memories have faded. The Lakers, looking to get past a traumatic loss, take a deep breath, exhale, and say they are ready to move ahead.

Three full days off have eased the recovery process. Tonight, sometime around 7:30 at the Forum, everyone will find out just how much in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals, redemption and the San Antonio Spurs now a dual target.

“There’s two ways you can react, strong or weak,” Laker guard Anthony Peeler said. “We have a lot of guys who are competitive on this team, so we’re going to try to come out here and compete strong. We had our heads down when we lost. There were a lot of guys crying in the locker room, and we’ve never seen guys take a loss like that before.

“We know it’s going to be a tough game for us, but we have got to be in it emotionally, like we were in Game 2. It’s going to be tough for us to bounce back after we fought so hard to come down to the last couple of seconds, but we know that’s what it’s all about.”

At the moment, it’s all about getting back in the series. A loss means an 0-3 deficit and the possibility of elimination Sunday afternoon.

At the same time, fans making up the ninth consecutive home sellout, and the Lakers themselves, will see whether this team can bounce back from a potentially deflating loss Monday at the Alamodome, before the made-for-television schedule sent the series on hiatus.

Will that overtime loss, after a missed chance to win in regulation, strengthen their resolve?

Or will it prove to have been the beginning of the end?

“I would have been concerned if we would have had to play (earlier in the week),” Coach Del Harris said. “It would have been hard. But by the time we play again Friday, they’ll be so hungry to play.

“What happened Monday will always hurt when they think back, this summer and, who knows, for a while. And when they go into that arena, they’ll remember it, probably for years, because it was that hurtful and that frustrating to feel that you had actually won a game and didn’t get credit for it.

“But these guys didn’t get to the point that they’re in in their lives by letting the past defeat them.”

Added Nick Van Exel: “I think everybody was very upset in the locker room and the plane ride home. But you get all that anger out of you. You have a lot of time to recuperate. I think everybody has forgotten about it by now. Everybody is professional enough to let it go and know we’ve got to play Friday.”

The Spurs come in having won 26 of their last 28 games, including an easy 14-point victory in their last visit to the Forum on April 9.

And they come to town this time looking to inflict far more damage--a kind that would send the Lakers into the off-season by the end of the weekend.

“Friday is a must-win for those guys, and they know it,” Spur guard Avery Johnson said. “The pressure is on them. We’re going out there with a plan. We’re not going out there to win one.”

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Laker Notes

Cedric Ceballos is shooting 26.7% and averaging 4.5 points in the series, and Coach Del Harris suddenly has a couple of options, should his regular-season scoring leader get off to another slow start. Eddie Jones and George Lynch are coming off their best playoff games, Jones having scored 20 points to break out of a slump and Lynch having contributed 13 points and eight rebounds while playing the fourth quarter and overtime in place of Ceballos. Jones had been getting 25 minutes a game, despite his 30% shooting the first five games, but Lynch probably moved into the rotation with his showing.

“To play this well with the most intense pressure is really a credit to George,” Harris said. “And he will get more playing time, or at least he’ll get earlier playing time. He’ll get in there. How much time he gets then depends on how well he does in that game and how well other players are doing.”

Vlade Divac was a hit Wednesday on “The Tonight Show.” He had been invited to be a guest of Jay Leno about a month ago but rescheduled after getting sick. The show called Monday with another invitation, not long before Divac missed two free throws with 4.6 seconds left in regulation that cost the Lakers a chance to win. He considered backing out, but went ahead and enjoyed himself. “It was a good thing for me,” he said. “Especially right now, when I need a little relaxation, let’s say.”