Stoudamire Gets a Rude Welcoming

It wasn’t the bad passes or the poor shot selection that made the Portland Trail Blazers wish they didn’t have a postseason novice playing point guard. It was the fact that, for all intents and playoff purposes, they had a rookie paying point guard, and you know how rookies get treated in the NBA.

So there was Damon Stoudamire, on his back, looking up while Nick Van Exel--who appeared to initiate contact on the well-positioned Stoudamire--made the three-point shot that was the decisive basket in the Lakers’ 104-102 victory over Portland Friday night in Game 1 of their first-round series.

Welcome to the playoffs, Mighty Mouse.

Stoudamire was the unknown in this series. He had never played in a playoff game before, and he had never played against the Lakers as a Trail Blazer. (He wasn’t acquired until after the Lakers played their first three games against Portland, and he missed their final meeting with a sprained ankle.)

He showed Friday night why the Lakers weren’t losing sleep when he came to Portland from Toronto. His trade, along with Carlos Rogers and Walt Williams in exchange for Kenny Anderson, Gary Trent and Alvin Williams on Feb. 13 didn’t scare the Lakers nearly as much as the Rony Seikaly acquisition by the Jazz that later was rescinded.

From the outside, the Stoudamire trade didn’t represent such a major shift in the Western Conference balance of power.

Maybe the other Blazers didn’t like playing with Kenny Anderson, but he put up some decent numbers--averaging the same amount of points and about three fewer assists than the 12 points and 8 assists Stoudamire put up in the 22 games he played with Portland.

And he had played in the playoffs before, something Stoudamire never got close to doing in his first 2 1/2 seasons in the league with Toronto.

It was only natural that Stoudamire’s numbers would not be as impressive.

In Toronto, the entire offense consisted of Stoudamire coming off pick-and-rolls from the top of the key. Stop that play and the Raptors had nothing. But most teams couldn’t, and Stoudamire averaged almost 20 points a game in Toronto.

Portland has so many options that Stoudamire doesn’t have to call his own number all the time. Still, it must be nice to have 7-foot-3, 292-pound Arvydas Sabonis around when Stoudamire does want a screen.

In his first playoff game, Stoudamire wasn’t too afraid to pull up and hit a pair of three-point shots in the first quarter to help Portland to an early 16-9 lead.

But this wasn’t about what Stoudamire would do against Derek Fisher. The real test would come when Stoudamire had to face Van Exel, who has gone to battle against the likes of Gary Payton and John Stockton in the playoffs.

Van Exel’s besting of Payton was the single most important matchup victory in the Lakers’ first-round upset of Seattle in 1995, and he handled Stoudamire Friday night.

Van Exel came in with 5:18 remaining and scored the last seven points in an otherwise shaky first quarter for the Lakers. He beat Stoudamire off the dribble in the second half, and while they didn’t earn him many points they often resulted in easy buckets for teammates off passes or follow-up shots.

Stoudamire started to unravel late in the third period. Van Exel swiped one of his entry passes and the Lakers ultimately got two Eddie Jones free throws out of the possession. A missed three-pointer by Stoudamire led to a three-point switch and a huge shift in momentum.

Shaquille O’Neal was knocked to the floor attempting to get the rebound, but he got up, Elden Campbell found him trucking down the floor and . . .

Flash forward 20 years. Portland’s Kelvin Cato is in the psychiatrist’s office.

“Doc, I can’t get this image out of my head,” Kato says. “Shaquille O’Neal takes off from just inside the dotted circle and dunks on me so hard my kids were born hurting. And the refs called a foul on me. And 17,505 people at the Forum were going nuts.”

It was the play the Lakers needed, and Stoudamire gave them the opportunity.

He opened another door in the fourth quarter. Down by four points with about 3 1/2 minutes remaining, he took a jumper that was put right back in his face by Eddie Jones, then forced an off-balance shot in the lane that missed. O’Neal got another dunk at the other end and the Lakers led by six.

But his most costly play came when he did everything right, cutting off the sideline against Van Exel. Maybe the officials thought Stoudamire flopped. They weren’t about to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially since he had already annoyed Terry Durham enough to receive a technical foul in the third quarter.

He could only watch as Van Exel drilled the open three that gave the Lakers a five-point lead with 31.1 seconds remaining.

“It was one of those calls,” Stoudamire said.

One of those calls that goes to the veteran?

“Well . . . yeah,” Stoudamire said.

The final line for Stoudamire: 12 points, 10 assists, four turnovers and one rough initiation.