Divac Gets Message From Teammates : Lakers: His play at center is one reason L.A. can win its series against the Suns tonight.

It’s near the end of a tedious March trip, and the Lakers are practicing in the musty gym of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science.

Dragging himself to the bleachers, Vlade Divac announces that he will skip the team’s weightlifting session and go to the hotel to sleep. Byron Scott hears him and scowls.

“You’re going to take the fine?” Scott says. “Is that $150 fine going to help you out there tomorrow?”

Divac yawns, protesting that he needs the rest. Scott glares at him.

“I went,” Divac recalled Monday.

Maybe that extra hour of pumping iron isn’t the reason Divac grabbed 23 rebounds in the Lakers’ two surprising playoff triumphs over the Phoenix Suns. Maybe it isn’t the reason the Lakers, the only sub-.500 team to qualify for postseason play, will be in position tonight at the Forum to become the first eighth-seeded team to eliminate a top-seeded opponent.

But the prodding--and his willingness to accept advice from his teammates--have helped Divac gain supremacy at center in this series and give the Lakers a significant advantage.

Divac, who averaged 12.8 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.7 blocks this season, exceeded those numbers at Phoenix. His 10 rebounds in Friday’s 107-103 victory doubled Mark West’s total, and he scored a game-high 19 points Sunday. He is equally at ease putting up a three-pointer or dodging slow-footed Tom Chambers for layups. Divac is averaging 15.5 points, 11.5 rebounds and three blocks in the series. Scott takes some credit.

“It’s serious needling,” Scott said of his frequent warnings to Divac, smiling to soften his words. “We’re trying to let him know he needs that strength to deal with these big guys. Mark West is a big, strong center. Vlade has a lot of great tools, but when it comes to crunch time, you want to be down low, and if you’re not strong enough, big guys like that are going to push you right out of the middle. . . .

“Everybody’s been getting Vlade ready to play. We’ve all been talking to him, encouraging him and reminding him of what happened a couple of years ago against Phoenix,” Scott added, referring to West’s domination of Divac in the Suns’ 1990 second-round triumph. “We have a lot of confidence in him.”

And Divac, after four seasons in the NBA, is gaining confidence in his ability to become one of the league’s top centers.

“There are four guys, really, at the top, and soon nobody can catch them,” he said, listing Orlando’s Shaquille O’Neal, San Antonio’s David Robinson, the Knicks’ Patrick Ewing and Houston’s Hakeem Olajuwon. “I try to come close. I want to be the type of player like Brad Daugherty of Cleveland. If I can be like that, I’ll be happy.”

And he’s more than willing to listen to Scott or anyone else who can further his progress.

“Our leaders, Byron, A.C. (Green), James (Worthy), they’re guys who have been in the league 10 years, so we look to them as leaders and follow them,” he said.

Still, no one had to tell him the Lakers would have little chance if he let West outplay him. Or that the Lakers would have to outrebound the Suns and play disciplined defense to hold Phoenix below its league-leading 113.4 scoring average. Led by Green, who is averaging 11 rebounds, and Divac, the Lakers outrebounded the Suns twice.

“We’re fighting for position, and everybody works better in the paint,” Divac said.

Phoenix averaged 92 points in the first two games, including the Lakers’ sterling effort in an 86-81 victory Sunday, and is shooting 45.3%, compared to its regular-season 49.3%. West is averaging 5.5 points and 5.5 rebounds, and Chambers is averaging 18 points, but only three rebounds.

“We knew we can play better than we did in the season against them, and after that last game in Phoenix (a 115-114 defeat April 6) when we lost on Majerle’s shot, we knew we could win in Phoenix,” Divac said. “We didn’t believe we would win two games, but after the first game we said, ‘We’re in position to win both.’

“I like big games. I like playoffs. It’s something special. In the regular season, you can go up and down. You can have mistakes and lose, and you can win. In the playoffs, if you lose, you are out. The series is over. It makes me think every game is a big game, especially because we are in the eighth spot and they are in the first.”

Divac’s heightened intensity has impressed Coach Randy Pfund.

“Vlade can be a very emotional player,” Pfund said. “He doesn’t show it all the time in his expression or how he responds on the floor, but Vlade knows there are some things he can do against (Phoenix) that can work to our advantage and he’s doing them. And he’s gained more and more confidence as the series has gone on.”

To end the series tonight will be difficult for the Lakers, who were 20-21 at the Forum. The Suns had a league-best 27-14 road record. But the Lakers have history on their side: Only twice have they lost a series after taking a 2-0 lead, dropping a seven-game final to the Boston Celtics in 1966 and a second-round series to Atlanta in 1970.

“We shouldn’t do anything special (tonight),” Divac said. “If we play the same game like we played in the first two, we’ll be fine.”