THE MOST AMAZING NUMBER OF THE YOUNG LAKER SEASON IS NOTHING LESS THAN . . . : Riley and Heat Are the Next Obstacles on the Way to Record Start

The Miami Heat--and Pat Riley--are the next obstacles standing in the way of the unbeaten Lakers, who need five wins to set a record for the best start in NBA history.

Even without Shaquille O’Neal, who is sidelined at least another 10 days with an abdominal strain, the Lakers sound confident they can eclipse the standard of 15 victories at the start of a season set by the Washington Capitols in 1948-49 and equaled by the Houston Rockets four years ago.

O’Neal saw a specialist Monday, who did not recommend surgery, as had been feared. The NBA’s second-leading scorer and sixth-leading rebounder had acknowledged that possibility before the Lakers beat the Clippers, 119-102, Sunday night for their 11th consecutive victory.

“Do we have to lose? Maybe, maybe not,” Nick Van Exel said, after the win over the Clippers. “I’m not looking forward to losing. We want to keep it going. I’m sure everybody’s thinking about it the same way. We just want to keep winning.”

The Lakers play at Miami (8-4) tonight, at Boston (7-6) Wednesday night and at Philadelphia (3-7) Friday night.

Riley, coach of the Heat, coached the Lakers from early in the 1981-82 season through the 1989-90 season, and guided them to four NBA championships. They haven’t won one since he left.

If the Lakers beat the Heat, Celtics and 76ers, their chances of setting a record appear very good, even without O’Neal. That’s because they entertain Toronto, which has won only one game, Sunday night, then play the winless Nuggets at Denver three nights later.

“We’re a better team with Shaq, but I think we can pull off these victories on the road,” said Elden Campbell, who combined with Sean Rooks for 28 points and 14 rebounds at the center position against the Clippers.

“I’m not amazed at our streak,” said Eddie Jones, who scored 28 points against the Clippers. “We just want to go out and win games and we are going to fight and fight until there is no more fight in us. That’s the motto for this team.”

Kobe Bryant, 19, came off the bench to score 24 points against the Clippers--one below his career high.

“We have a lot of talent on this team, and we are still a great team without Shaq,” Bryant said. “But it is important that everyone picks up their game.

“Everyone is waiting to see if the Lakers are going to fold, and we welcome that challenge, even a little more because we don’t have Shaq.”

The win over the Clippers was the 500th for Del Harris, who became the 19th coach in NBA history to reach that milestone.

“Five hundred is something I can look back on at some other point and have some measure of pride about it,” Harris said. “But the big milestone I was looking for tonight was 11 in a row to start the season. That’s more important to me at this moment than 500.

“The big thing now is to try and stay undefeated as long as we possibly can.”

Harris, who has a career record of 500-430, became the eighth active coach to reach 500 wins. One of the other active coaches to accomplish the feat is Bill Fitch of the Clippers.

“Eighteen other guys have done that, only seven other teams have started 11-0,” said the 60-year-old Harris, who is 168-89 in three-plus seasons as the Lakers coach.

Previously, he coached Houston from 1979-83 and Milwaukee from 1987-92.

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* SHAQ

Bad news: He’s out at least 10 more days. Good news: He won’t need surgery on his injured abdomen. C8

* PIPPEN

He says he wants to be traded to Lakers or Suns, but Jackson says he’s putting everyone on. C8