Room for Improvement In the Middle : Lakers: They get 29 points from Campbell and 25 from Divac, but Ceballos plays tired.

At times this season, Laker forward Elden Campbell has looked as if he would rather be playing one of his beloved video games than playing basketball.

But Campbell’s concentration was apparent Saturday when he scored a personal playoff-best 29 points and had 10 rebounds in the Lakers’ 110-94 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the opening game of their NBA Western Conference semifinal series at the Alamodome.

“Elden was a monster out there,” Laker Coach Del Harris said. “Elden is so big, quick and athletic that he poses a problem for most people. He had his career-best year scoring this season, and I thought the last half of the season he was really very effective, even though he did get injured and missed part of it. I think he’s back on track now.”

Campbell, who averaged 12.5 points in the regular season, said he was more effective because the Spurs didn’t double-team him.

“If they want to keep playing single coverage, we’ll go to that matchup,” said Campbell, who made 12 of 20 shots.

While Campbell was on target, forward Cedric Ceballos, who averaged a career-high 21.7 points in the regular season, was missing seven of 10 shots and scoring only seven points. He missed five of his last six shots, making only a three-point basket with 39 seconds to play.

Ceballos, who had averaged 35.5 minutes per game in the playoffs, played only 28 minutes, including 13 in the second half. During a third-quarter timeout, he sat on the press table and appeared to be paying more attention to the Spurs’ cheerleaders than the team huddle. Ceballos, who had a towel wrapped around his shoulders, looked as though he was waiting for a shampoo at a trendy Beverly Hills hair salon.

“Cedric had a wonderful last three games of the Seattle series and just got off to a slow start in that first half,” Harris said.

Ceballos said the Lakers, who had less than 48 hours’ rest after Thursday night’s 114-110 victory over the SuperSonics, may have been tired.

“I thought coming in we were going to play Saturday night, but they gave us a 2:30 game,” Ceballos said. “But we’re professionals. It’s a tough situation. I’ve always thought this was a tough place to shoot, but given a couple days of practice we’ll be more effective.”

Center Vlade Divac helped to compensate for Ceballos’ performance with 25 points and 11 rebounds.

“Vlade was terrific,” Harris said. “He and Elden were like they’ve been most of the year. They worked together well in there. They give us an inside game, but David (Robinson) was so phenomenal today that even our best defensive game couldn’t get him stopped.”

Campbell and Divac impressed Spur swingman J.R. Reid.

“Vlade and Elden were tremendous,” Reid said. “They’re quality big men, and in this league when you give quality big men open shots in the paint without somebody doubling back, they’re going to hit them and that’s what they did.”

Spur center David Robinson, who had 33 points, 11 rebounds and five blocked shots, agreed.

“One of the reasons the Lakers have been successful is because of Divac and Campbell,” Robinson said. “Coming off that tough series against Seattle, I thought Divac might be a little drained, but Divac and Campbell played great today. If they play like that the whole series we’re going to have our hands full.”

Divac lost his cool after he was called for traveling when he collided with Robinson with 4:55 to play. Divac, who got tangled up with Robinson in a heap on the floor, leaped to his feet and went after the officials.

Spur forward Dennis Rodman wrapped his arms around Divac to restrain him. Rodman, who appeared to be trying to keep the peace, was called for a technical foul.

“I was going to go tell the referee it was a bad call, but Dennis grabbed me,” Divac said. “I was a little frustrated, and I tried to run to the referee and Dennis tried to help. He got into a bad situation, and I apologized because he was just trying to stop me.”

Campbell also got into a minor scuffle with guard Doc Rivers after drawing a flagrant foul for elbowing Robinson to the court with 4:42 remaining. Campbell drew a technical foul for shoving Rivers, who also received a technical.

“David had already lost his balance before the contact and it wasn’t intentional,” Campbell said. “I’m not worried about that foul.”

But the Spurs are worried about stopping Campbell and Divac for the rest of the series.