NBA PLAYOFFS : Carrying Lakers Leads to Sore Back : Pro basketball: Van Exel was strong all year, but he lifts his game in postseason. Game 4 today.

Nick Van Exel sat out Saturday as the Lakers went through a light workout in preparation for today’s noon meeting with the San Antonio Spurs at the Forum. Bad back.

Relatively speaking, this is a minor obstacle. Van Exel has already had four games of the Seattle SuperSonics’ traps and presses in his first pro playoff exposure, which ended with his tearing through Gary Payton, one of the game’s best.

He went into the Western Conference semifinals to face the Spurs and the inside defensive presence of David Robinson with 38 hours’ rest, then had consecutive double-doubles before getting 25 points and eight assists Friday night.

The spasms have been with him off and on for a while, though much more on this week. So today, heading into Game 4 as the Lakers look to build on their impressive showing from two nights ago and try to even the best-of-seven series, Van Exel will get treatment on the lower back, maybe even some heat pads during breaks, play the usual 40-something minutes and, barring a change in course, dazzle.

He has done so the entire playoffs, after all. His numbers compared to the regular season are all up significantly, except for assists, and the drop there from 8.3 to 7.1 can be largely attributed to the Lakers shooting only 42.7% in the seven games. And it’s not only the extra 9.2 minutes--turnovers are down and his own accuracy from the field has climbed from 42% to 48.6%.

“We should all have a bad back then,” Coach Del Harris said.

The Lakers may form a line to get one themselves. In the meantime, they have come to rely on their 23-year-old, second-year point guard who faced postseason competition for the first time and didn’t blink.

“All those doubters, he’s calling them out right now,” Eddie Jones said after Van Exel made a quick exit from practice Saturday without speaking to reporters. “He’s letting them know, ‘I’m here, I’m going to be here for a while, I’m making my point.’ ”

Added assistant coach Larry Drew, the former point guard who has tutored Van Exel: “I think the guys are definitely rallying behind him. They know where Nick goes, we go. And he knows it’s on his shoulders and on his back. He’s told us that’s a challenge he has accepted.

“He has shown he can play under the pressure. He has shown that he can play when the game’s on the line. He wants the big shot down the stretch. He’s leading this ballclub.”

Drew’s role, and his share of the success, goes beyond game preparation. A 10-year pro, he urged Van Exel to become even more focused between the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs, when the intensity level would climb all around. “Eye of the tiger” became the catch phrase.

They were together in their uncertainty. “He didn’t know what to expect; we didn’t know what to expect from him in a playoff situation,” Drew said. The answers came quickly. Van Exel had 29 points in the one-man show against Seattle in the opener and hasn’t slowed since.

“He’s changed levels in the playoffs,” Harris said.

The Spurs, meanwhile, will be trying to recapture the old one. Friday’s loss was their first in six playoff games, and they are shooting only 41.7% in the series, with starters Sean Elliott at 32.4%, Vinny Del Negro at 38.9% and Avery Johnson at 39.4%.

“We’ve won a lot of games; I’m certainly not going to panic because we lost one,” Coach Bob Hill said. “We didn’t play well and I thought the Lakers played great. They deserve a lot of credit. When somebody kicks your butt, I think you should just take your butt-whipping and go back and regroup and come to play again.”

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Laker Notes

One guess which player is in trouble with the Spurs. Coach Bob Hill said he was unsure whether Dennis Rodman will start today after a series of events in Game 3, though a San Antonio TV station reported Rodman will not start. Rodman failed to participate in a huddle during the second half and, after being replaced, took his shoes off, wrapped a towel around his head and proceeded to lie on the court. Rodman practiced with the team Saturday at the Forum. . . . Vlade Divac on Cedric Ceballos, who broke out of a slump to get 22 points, 10 rebounds and four steals Friday: “It was obvious he’d lost confidence. We were happy to see him shooting like his old self again, like that No. 23 in Chicago, 45, 23, 45, whatever his number is now.”

The seven-point victory in Game 3 was the Lakers’ largest of the playoffs. Their three victories over Seattle had come by a combined 10 points. . . . San Antonio’s Doc Rivers, the former Clipper, was asked if the Forum has regained the Showtime atmosphere. “It’s back,” he said. “I think it’s better because the real basketball fans got to sneak in and get tickets because all the fickle fans gave up theirs. Now they’re bitter because they can’t get back in no matter how much money they have.”

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Nick Van Exel, Then and Now

Season Playoffs Scoring avg. 16.9 22.4 Shooting 42% 48.6% Steals 1.21 2.43 Assists 8.3 7.1 Turnovers 2.8 2 Minutes 36.8 46