ANALYSIS : Stretching Out at Home : After an Early Schedule That Was Stacked With Road Games, Lakers Can Turn Season Around With a Run of Forum Dates

They hit the road for much of the first two months of the season, and the road hit back. Sore knees, twisted ankles, broken noses, bruised feelings. Losses.

Now, here’s the new year and a new opportunity for the Lakers. Unpacking.

Prosperity? Maybe that too.

No other NBA team played more road games through November and December, and only three others played as many, but now, at 17-16, the schedule finally turns in the Lakers’ favor. They get to live at home.

Starting today, the Lakers will play 12 of the next 18 at the Forum, where they are 12-4, and two of the “road” games are at the Sports Arena. That means only two trips in the seven-week span, a Boston-Philadelphia-New Jersey swing Jan. 24-27 and a one-night stand Feb. 6 in Denver. That should give them a chance to find their stride.

“You can’t say this is a make-or-break time, because it’s still early,” guard Eddie Jones said. “But this is a stretch we definitely need to take advantage of. This is a stretch we need to take us into the All-Star break on a high note and then, when we get back from the break, take us into the playoffs.”

Fifty-one days, a span that began Tuesday and runs through Feb. 21.

Twenty games, with five breaks of at least three days, compared with only one of those in the first two months.

Fourteen opponents with a combined winning percentage of .474 (202-224) before Saturday’s games.

Four sets of games on consecutive nights, after 10 sets the first two months.

Only five cities.

Eight games against teams that may eventually be battling to stay out of last place--the Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Nets, Clippers and Minnesota Timberwolves . . .

And four against championship contenders--the Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets and Chicago Bulls.

They get two games against underachievers--Dallas and Golden State . . .

And one against an overachiever, Cleveland.

They get one stretch later this month of only five games in 14 days, and the five opponents are the Clippers, Cavaliers, Celtics, 76ers and Nets, teams with a combined .394 winning percentage (58-93) before Saturday’s games.

Laker management and coaches recognized the difficult schedule early, and therefore did not panic while the record never got more than three games above .500; now they expect results. Coach Del Harris--partly guarding against his players relaxing, partly wanting them to work toward an in-season goal--has challenged them to move from third place to first sometime during the favorable stretch.

Making up six games on Seattle, playing very well despite the absence of all-star Detlef Schrempf, will be a difficult task while playing only 20. In fact, the Lakers are about as close to the cellar in the Pacific Division than to second-place Sacramento.

“While it’s a high aim, it’s something that is possible if we really work at it,” Harris said. “My philosophy has always been to take one game at a time, and right now we’re having trouble with that. But that could change.

“Maybe I shouldn’t even have said that. But I thought it was something we could do.”

So do the players.

“We’ll say it’s very important to come out on top,” Derek Strong said. “It’ll put us in a good place for the rest of the season. It’ll put us right where we want to be. We want to hang around the top. If not in first place, then right around there.”

Added Sedale Threatt, “We’ve got a great opportunity here. These guys definitely want to be there. When you’ve got a chance to be No. 1, you definitely want to be there.

“It’s up to us. If we play like we’re supposed to play, we can go for it and be where we want to be by the end of February.”

So how many of the 20 can they win? They lost Tuesday to the 76ers, then beat the Jazz on Friday night to start the stretch.

Vlade Divac said 16 is realistic. Threatt said 15 would be great. Harris, and some players, don’t pick a number. They just know it should be a high one.

They had better be right. After these 20 games, the team that lost 12 of its first 17 games away from the Forum finishes with 13 home dates and 18 road games. Happy landings.