Lakers Trail Big but Go Down With Guns Blazing

Eight possessions and three minutes 24 seconds, six field goals in eight tries, four free throws in four tries, 19 points for the Lakers.

Zero points for the Portland Trail Blazers.

“I was just looking up, watching shots going in,” Mario Bennett said later, still not sure if he should be amazed or disappointed at what had just transpired. “I was boxing out for no reason a lot of times.”

It was the greatest run of the Laker season, a 19-0 high-speed steamroller of a performance, and it came in the fourth quarter on the road and silenced the home crowd, the 21,538 in the Rose Garden. And it came in a . . . loss.

The eventual 117-105 victory for the Trail Blazers on Tuesday night was made close because Shaquille O’Neal, Bennett, Kobe Bryant, Jon Barry and Derek Fisher managed something even more unusual than their pairing for the final 10:06. They turned a 31-point deficit with 10:20 remaining into a 108-103 game with 2:28 left, they turned around the night after a third quarter in which the Lakers had been outscored, 35-14, in the third quarter.

They just couldn’t turn it into a miraculous win. The furious charge ended there, allowing the Trail Blazers to walk out with a victory, which is not to be confused with the way Trail Blazer Isaiah Rider walked out on his team without explanation with 7:17 remaining, literally leaving the bench and the building.

“We’ll deal with that tomorrow after practice,” Portland Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “That will be tomorrow’s story.”

The one Tuesday was about the home team being unable to protect a big lead and missing the chance for an easy win, the same circumstances of the Laker victory when the teams met last Wednesday at the Forum in the final game before all-star weekend. This time, in the first game back from the break, the visitors, the desperate challengers, could see the struggle in the eyes of the Trail Blazers.

“They just went real tentative,” Barry said after missing seven of eight three-pointers, and eight of 10 shots overall, but contributing six assists without a turnover.

The strange part was that they did against that lineup, a quick one, but also one that included the Lakers’ 11th and 12th men, Barry and Bennett. And with Coach Del Harris unable to turn to Eddie Jones, unable to play because of flu in a move that put Kobe Bryant in the starting lineup.

This marked Bryant’s seventh career start and the first of this season. Or his second in a row, counting his spot in the Western Conference opening lineup Sunday in New York.

That was the same day Jones felt the early signs of oncoming trouble. By Monday, after flying cross-country, he was officially sick and skipped a nighttime practice. By Tuesday, he was worse, not only absent for the morning shootaround but also still in his room during the game.

He met the team at the airport for the flight home afterward, but that may have strictly been for transportation purposes--the Lakers say it’s unlikely Jones will play tonight against the Golden State Warriors at the Great Western Forum. If so, Bryant gets the call again, or whoever that was masquerading as Bryant on Tuesday.

One shot in nine minutes in the first quarter?

Three shots in 16 minutes in the first half, giving him as many fouls as attempts?

That’s usually opening-possession work for him. Maybe it was a hint of exhaustion--Bryant’s schedule for all-star weekend was at times so extensive that he had to steal sleep where he could find it, like in the middle of the locker room Saturday night, in full uniform shortly before his role in the 2ball competition.

“A little bit,” Bryant, who finished six of 13 from the field, said when asked if he was tired. “A little bit.”

Said Bennett: “You could tell Kobe was kind of sluggish. You could tell some of the guys were tired, not having even been home.”

Or maybe it wasn’t so much about deprivation as domination. That is, O’Neal took 20 shots in 18 minutes before intermission, still eight shy of the team record for shots in a half by Elgin Baylor, but overpowering nonetheless. He finished with 26 attempts and 12 makes, worth 31 points to go with 12 rebounds.

* Clippers Stumble Again

They suffer their 17th loss in a row at Salt Lake City, 106-98. C3