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Lakers Beaten at Buzzer : Pro basketball: Trail Blazers’ James Robinson hands L.A. first home defeat, 109-108.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

With the Laker bench at his back, Trail Blazer hopes on his shoulders and redemption on his mind, James Robinson needed only a couple of seconds for a play that will linger at least for days.

Three games after he shot an airball with a chance for a late tie against Sacramento, his three-point basket at the buzzer Tuesday night at the Forum gave Portland a stunning 109-108 victory before 10,836, beating the Lakers emotionally and physically.

Cedric Ceballos scored a season-high 38 points, but he could only stand, hands on hips, at the Laker bench after almost everyone else was halfway to the locker room. Derek Strong watched the replay on the scoreboard, over and over.

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“It felt real good,” said Robinson, who had 17 points and six assists. “Especially when the shot went down. It felt even better then.”

Nick Van Exel’s twisting 10-footer in the lane, the capper to his 19 points and 15 assists, had given the Lakers a 108-106 lead with 8.8 seconds left. The Trail Blazers took two timeouts, one after Robinson was grabbed with 2.1 seconds to go as L.A. had a foul to give.

The Lakers even took a delay of game to get a look at what the Trail Blazers would run. No matter. Robinson got open on the left side and got the shot off before George Lynch could run at him.

“We saw what the play was and still let it happen,” Coach Del Harris said after the Lakers also wasted 18 points and 16 rebounds by Vlade Divac in their first home defeat. “It was a youthful mistake, and it cost us the ballgame.”

Ceballos kept the Lakers in the game the first half by making seven of 11 shots as his teammates combined to shoot only 35.3%.

The 22 points at the midpoint practically equaled his season average coming in of 25.9, good for No. 5 in the league. It also came hours after he was named the NBA player of the week after averaging 26 points and 9.5 rebounds and shooting 56.7% in a four-game run that ended Sunday.

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“Last year when I won it, it was nice,” Ceballos said. “But this year, [Michael Jordan] was in the running and Charles [Barkley] and Anfernee [Hardaway]. How great does it get?”

It was good enough on this night to keep the Lakers within seven points heading into intermission, 60-53, despite no teammate scoring more than six.

It didn’t even take Ceballos three quarters to establish a new season high for scoring--his 33rd point came off Anthony Peeler’s offensive rebound and assist with 3:32 remaining. That bettered the 32 the all-star forward had against Seattle on Nov. 10 and gave the Lakers a 79-75 lead in a game they had never led until about two minutes before.

When the Trail Blazers, coming off a 17-point victory at home the night before against the Clippers, responded with an 8-0 rally, the Lakers were forced to play catch-up again. They responded behind Divac’s five unanswered points on three consecutive possessions for an 84-83 edge, before Chris Dudley’s tip-in put Portland back in the lead heading into the final quarter, 85-84.

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Laker Notes

Eddie Jones was not activated, as expected. Friday against the Sacramento Kings at the Forum looks like a sure thing. . . . Chick Hearn has now gone 30 years without missing a Laker broadcast, a milestone he passed Monday while the team was idle. His game streak is at 2,795 after Tuesday. Only two current Lakers--Sedale Threatt and Fred Roberts--were born before Nov. 20, 1965, the night Hearn was stuck in Arkansas because of weather after announcing a college football game and missed a Laker broadcast. “When I think about it, it kind of scares me,” he said. “It’s impressive to think that it can happen--and go by so quickly.” . . . Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was honored at halftime to commemorate his induction into the Hall of Fame last spring. The Lakers presented him with a painting of Abdul-Jabbar shooting his signature sky hook.

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