Lakers Lose in Game of Catch-Up : Pro basketball: They rally to trail by only six points late in fourth period before falling, 117-99, to Portland.

The Lakers played the tease again Friday night, falling behind in a big way, catching up, and then just falling.

“It’s just like needing to finish a play, when you make a great drive and then miss the shot at the end,” Doug Christie said. “I call it making a million-dollar move and a dollar finish.”

That was devalued even more inside Memorial Coliseum, where the Lakers, for the second game in a row, made a game out of a potential blowout and then, ultimately, turned that into disappointment.

This time, they were within six points with 6:00 to play and then were dominated the rest of the away as Jerome Kersey scored 12 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Portland Trail Blazers to a 117-99 victory before 12,888.

“We came back a couple different situations to cut the game to six or eight points,” Coach Randy Pfund said. “But it seems like every time we do that, we have breakdowns that just kill us.”

Said a frustrated Christie, who had 15 points to complement the game-high 22 by Elden Campbell: “We played about 34 good minutes. But we need to play the other 14 minutes or so the same way. I don’t know. We need to come together. It’s not up to Randy. It’s not up to management. It’s up to us.”

Say this about the Lakers, too: They are streaky. After losing five in a row and then winning four in a row, they have now lost three consecutive games.

For the second game in a row, the Lakers were in trouble early, trailing by 12 points after the Trail Blazers opened the second quarter with a 13-2 run to take a 40-28 lead.

But whereas they fell behind by 20 points to the Knicks on Tuesday night, they rallied against the Trail Blazers, turning a 51-37 game with 3:52 to play in the first half into a 55-46 game with 1:18 remaining.

The Trail Blazers, however, trying to win their fourth in a row against the Lakers, responded and took a 60-46 lead into halftime, despite 15 points and seven rebounds by Elden Campbell. Campbell made six of seven shots and Anthony Peeler was five of eight, but the other Laker starters combined to make only three of 17 shots.

Laker Notes

Vlade Divac came off the bench for the second game in a row, but indications are that his bruised right middle finger is improving. “It’s much better, 50% better,” Divac said before the game. “The last couple days, I didn’t have pain anymore when I would shoot.” That was a major factor in Divac’s making only seven of 19 shots (36.8%) the four games before Friday since injuring the joint where the finger meets the hand, and the major factor Coach Randy Pfund again chose to start Sam Bowie at center. “I don’t think he’s 100%,” Pfund said of Divac. “And I don’t want to start with a guy on the floor who is not 100%. It’s crucial to get a good start in games.” The biggest problem for Divac now is the pain that comes with catching a pass or a rebound.

Another problem with the front court has to do with rebounding. The Lakers began the night having been beaten on the boards in nine of the previous 10 outings, prompting Pfund to again put the forwards on notice. Divac is in the clear because he went into the Trail Blazer game averaging 10.2 rebounds. After that, however, no Laker is better than the 7.2 average of Elden Campbell. “If somebody said, ‘Could the lineup change at some point?’ yeah it could change,’ ” Pfund said. “But I haven’t looked at it that way. Yet.” One option would be to move Bowie to Campbell’s spot at power forward, though that would cost the Lakers their best shot blocker. Another is activating Kurt Rambis from the injured list, maybe before a six-game trip begins Tuesday.