Lakers Haven’t the Vegas Idea How to Slow Runnin’ Blazers : Game 4: Portland is simply too much for L.A. to handle as Lakers’ strange season comes to an end, 102-76.

Good night, sweet Lakers.

What began with a personal tragedy that gripped the world, ends amid a community’s tragedy that gripped the world anew. In between, the Lakers overcame superior force, were matched against a more superior force and finally succumbed Sunday in a “home” game far from home, 102-76, to the Portland Trail Blazers, who won the series, 3-1.

It was the first time in 11 seasons the Lakers had been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

But this time it was no upset.

“I told them, first of all, how proud I was of them for the effort they gave this year,” Coach Mike Dunleavy said.

“Not very many teams start the season in Paris and end in Vegas. I was proud to be part of them.”

The game, moved from the Forum because of last week’s riots, was played before an enthusiastic pro-Laker crowd of 15,478 in Nevada Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center.

The crowd might have been one more disorienting factor, since it was twice as loud as what the Lakers are used to at home.

“I’d like to give my thanks to the people of Los Angeles for coming to this game and the people of Las Vegas,” Dunleavy said. “I thought they did a terrific job of giving us the best chance of winning this game.

“Unfortunately, we came to the fight and forgot to load our guns.

“The way our team has played, our top six guys, each one has to give us a top performance and we had a couple guys today who couldn’t make shots.”

What he could have said was, “With what we had left . . . “

Minus Magic Johnson, James Worthy and Sam Perkins, the Lakers were one loss from missing the playoffs for the first time in 16 years, but they scrambled in, beating the Trail Blazers and Clippers in their last two games.

Overmatched in this series, down 2-0, they conjured up one last upset--Wednesday’s 121-119 overtime thriller--the same night rioting started, reducing their season to an after-thought.

The series was moved to this stronghold of college basketball, the state-of-the-art, 18,500-seat Thomas & Mack Center.

Unsure of their welcome, the Lakers were delighted to find they were the local darlings. The crowd oohed-and-ahhed through the dunking in pregame warm-ups, gave the Laker Girls a standing ovation, did the wave, chanted “RE-bels, RE-bels,” booed former Duke Blue Devil Alaa Abdelnaby and tried to rally the Lakers late in the second half when half of the Forum crowd would have been on the 405 Freeway.

The Lakers, shaken by the violence in their community, played hard but not well.

They were within 22-18, and 13-11 on the boards, after one quarter.

They were down, 24-23, early in the second when the Trail Blazers broke out. To that point, fast-break points were 4-4, but the Lakers started missing (leading playoff scorer Terry Teagle went three for 13; Vlade Divac two for nine) and the Trail Blazers started running.

A 16-2 Portland spurt, with four baskets on breaks, put the Lakers in catch-up mode to stay.

After that, it was only a matter of how badly the Trail Blazers would beat them. Pretty badly, it turned out.

Were the unfamiliar surroundings a factor?

“Just being in the building affected our shooting,” Byron Scott said. “At home, we’re familiar with everything in our building. You understand every spot on the floor. You understand where the lights are.

“It’s just so different being in purple-and-gold, rather than red-and-white.”

Said Dunleavy: “I don’t know if anything bothered us today other than the Portland Trail Blazers.”

This season, the five projected Laker starters missed 42% of their games. The Lakers posted their first losing month since 1979 in December . . . and their second in February. They were swept for the first time by the Pacers and Pistons.

But still they persevered.

“You can say, ‘We’ve been dealt a bad hand,’ ” A.C. Green said. “But just because you’re short-handed, that’s still not a reason to take things in your own hands.

“We had to do things collectively. I don’t think any one individual could have done it. We needed one another. I guess the message to the people of L.A. is we need one another.”

Scott was asked where this team ranked among his nine, including three NBA champions, in realizing its potential.

“I would have to put this one at the very top,” he said. “Last year this team wasn’t supposed to do as well as it did (reaching the NBA finals). But we still had a lot of weapons.”

The most bizarre basketball season the Lakers ever saw, or want to see again, passes into history.

“It started off in Paris in my ninth year,” Scott said. “I feel like I just ended my 11th year.”

Laker Notes

The Trail Blazers will face Phoenix in the Western Conference semifinals, with the first game Tuesday night in Portland. . . . Trail Blazer Coach Rick Adelman: “It’s really unfortunate they (Lakers) couldn’t play in their building because those guys never quit. It had a definite effect on them.” . . . Mike Dunleavy played everyone but Jack Haley--who didn’t play a minute in the last two games after publicly challenging the Trail Blazers before Game 3. . . . Clyde Drexler led all scorers with 26 points, took 10 rebounds, blocked two shots and had seven assists.

* THE WINNERS: Trail Blazers were happy to be back on the court. C12