Road 3-Peat Within Grasp

Just when the Lakers thought they were over and done with that three-in-a-row thing....

It took them until the final days of February to win three consecutive games, the longest of any team in the franchise’s 57-year history, and now they have a chance to distance themselves from five other Laker teams that went an entire season without winning three consecutive road games.

The Lakers defeated the Dallas Mavericks with a little help from Kobe Bryant, the Charlotte Bobcats with a lot of help from Bryant, and tonight they face the suddenly struggling Washington Wizards, marking the halfway point of a six-game trip that has begun better than anybody not wearing Laker colors would have guessed.

Bryant has been nagged by a bruised calf and center Chris Mihm has been bothered by back spasms, so the Lakers opted for a film session and light weight workout instead of a full practice Sunday, the better to survive four games in five nights.

With a playoff spot in fragile on-again, off-again territory, Coach Frank Hamblen met with reporters amid the apropos backdrop of a cabinet of fine vases in the lobby of a swank downtown hotel where the Lakers have parked themselves in the nation’s capital, perhaps on the way to three in a row away from Staples Center.

“It certainly would be nice,” Hamblen said. “[The Wizards] have to win games also. They’re jockeying for position. [But] we have to win games.”

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The Laker defense, a well-chronicled season-long glitch, could end up setting league records for fewest turnovers forced and fewest steals per game.

The Lakers have forced an average of 10.96 turnovers, putting them on pace to break the record low of 12 per game set in 2001-02 by the Houston Rockets, who were coached by Rudy Tomjanovich.

The Lakers are also closing in on the record for fewest steals per game, averaging 5.42. The Detroit Pistons averaged 5.94 steals in 1990-91.

“I don’t think we’re a team that can go out and pressure people,” Hamblen said. “We’re basically trying to contain [and] on occasion we can pressure. Defense starts with your guards. We’re more of a contain team than a pressure team.”

The Lakers had one steal in the first half of Saturday’s victory over the Bobcats, prompting Hamblen to jab the players in the locker room at halftime.

“I told them we already got our quota for most of the game, so let’s go out and see if we can double it,” Hamblen said dryly afterward. “As you [media] guys noticed, we had three in the second half, but we had two in a row. Did you notice our bench was all fired up about that?”

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Hamblen on the Laker defense in general, now 20th in the league at 99.42 points allowed a game: “We talk about it every day. I mean, every single day we talk about it. We’re going to talk about it in a meeting [Sunday]. We’re going to talk about it in [today’s] shootaround. We talk about it every day.”

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TONIGHT

at Washington,

4 PST (Channel 9, 5:30, delayed)

Site -- MCI Center.

Radio -- 570, 1330.

Records -- Lakers 32-29, Wizards 33-27.

Record vs. Wizards -- 0-1.

Update -- The Wizards have lost eight of their last 11 games. They defeated the Lakers, 120-116, on Dec. 17, thanks to their backcourt. Gilbert Arenas had 37 points and Larry Hughes had 33 for the Wizards in the game at Staples Center.