Lakers Can’t Lose Against Portland : Pro basketball: They use 10-0 run at start of fourth quarter for third victory over Trail Blazers, 99-96.

Oh boy, big guys.

The Lakers who can’t beat the Miami Heat, who account for half the Dallas Mavericks’ victories and have fallen to the last-place Milwaukee Bucks and Sacramento Kings as well, raised their record against the Portland Trail Blazers to 3-0, rallying in the second half to beat them, 99-96, Friday night before a sellout of 17,505 in the Forum.

Elden Campbell and Vlade Divac--you read right--led a 10-0 run to start the fourth quarter, turning the game around for good.

Campbell scored all six of his points in the burst, including a 19-foot jumper from the corner, thought to be the longest shot of his pro career.

Divac scored the other four points, blocked three shots in the quarter and six in all.

“We had our biggest lineup out there, that’s the thing that’s a little disturbing,” Trail Blazer Coach Rick Adelman said.

“We had Duck (Kevin Duckworth), Mark (Bryant) and Cliff (Robinson) in. Once they got those easy baskets at the start of the fourth quarter, it just changed the game.”

The Lakers trailed, 75-74, starting the fourth quarter but jumped into the lead on Campbell’s five-foot jump hook.

The next time down, Divac was fouled and made two free throws.

The next, Campbell hit a turnaround 10-footer.

Then Divac made two more free throws.

Then Campbell drilled his 19-footer.

That made it 84-75 and the Lakers held off Portland down the stretch to improve their record to 19-15.

The Trail Blazers came in with a 22-10 mark, 1 1/2 games ahead of last year’s pace despite their starters having lost more games to injury than during the last two seasons combined.

“The thing that’s encouraging to us,” Adelman said before the game, “we don’t think we’ve played anywhere closed to what we’re capable of playing.

“We started out well (8-0) when everybody was healthy but since then, it seems like we’ve been trying to go game by game. The encouraging thing to us, we’re three games behind Phoenix and one behind Seattle. But we’ve got to be healthy. We’ve got to face facts--we need Clyde (Drexler) to be playing.”

Friday they had to face Sedale Threatt, too, and he was smoking.

Threatt’s first five shots, all from 20 feet, barely touched the rim and the Lakers were off to an 18-6 lead.

Threatt missed his sixth shot, then made the next three--all 20-footers--giving him 16 points by the early second quarter. By that time, James Edwards had come off the bench to make three of his first four shots, the Lakers were shooting 67% and leading, 40-27.

After that, the Trail Blazers outscored the Lakers, 29-12, before halftime and turned the game around. Backup point guard Rod Strickland collapsed the Laker defense, darting into the lane at will, scoring 10 points with two assists in the second quarter.

The Trail Blazers led, 56-52, at the half but couldn’t draw away in the third quarter, setting up a fourth quarter no one expected and another victory over the defending Western Conference champions.

Said General Manager Jerry West: “You figure it out.”

Laker Notes

The Trail Blazers outrebounded the Lakers, 28-16 in the first half. The Lakers outrebounded the Trail Blazers, 29-18, in the second half. . . . James Edwards and Buck Williams squared off in the third quarter and were hit with double technical fouls. Because Edwards had gotten an earlier technical, he was ejected. . . . Duane Cooper was at point guard during the Lakers’ 10-0 run, after having been pressured into three turnovers Thursday in the Clippers’ third-quarter rally. “The one thing I don’t want is for our rookie guards to play tight,” Laker Coach Randy Pfund said.