East Seems to Bring Out the Best in Them

Four consecutive victories over Eastern Conference teams to start this six-game trip have increased the Laker record to 17-2 against East teams, a mark Coach Phil Jackson credits both to his background with the Chicago Bulls and Shaquille O’Neal’s inside power.

“It’s that I know this conference better perhaps coming from this conference, and that might help,” said Jackson, who coached the Bulls for nine years.

“And the other fact is that Shaq’s a dominating force. There aren’t the type of centers that we face night-in and night-out in the West that he has to face in the East.”

The Lakers’ only losses to East teams came at Indiana and at home against Toronto.

The Lakers, who have won seven in a row overall, close the trip with games at New Jersey tonight and Cleveland on Wednesday, and say that they were eyeing a 6-0 trip sweep from the beginning.

“We were thinking that all along,” Kobe Bryant said. “But you have to take it one game at time. Can’t even talk about it right now, really.”

Winning tough games on the road--all four on this trip have been won in the fourth quarter or overtime--is strengthening the team, Bryant said.

“A great deal of our games in the second half are on the road, and that can go with you, or that can go against you,” Bryant said. “Right now, it looks like it’s going with us, because when you go into the playoffs, you have to win games on the road.”

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Are the Laker players paying attention to Portland, which has won eight games in a row and has remained a half-game ahead in the Pacific Division standings even as the Lakers pile up their own victories?

“Kind of,” guard Ron Harper said. “I’m sure they’re doing that same thing. They’re trying to see how our team plays and our team is trying to see how they play. We’re going to see [on Feb. 29 in Portland].”

Harper takes issue with the official standings, arguing that the Lakers really are tied with Portland, since both teams have the same number of defeats (Portland has one more victory).

“They’ve lost 11 games, we’ve lost 11 games,” Harper said. “That’s the key.”

TONIGHT

at New Jersey, 4:30 PST

Channel 9 (delayed, 6)

* Site--Continental Airlines Arena.

* Radio--KLAC (570).

* Records--Lakers 41-11, Nets 21-31.

* Record vs. Nets--1-0.

* Update--The Nets have won their last two games, defeating Miami at home and Minnesota on the road, in Stephon Marbury’s emotional return to the city he spurned last season. Marbury scored 39 points Sunday in Minneapolis.