Blaze of Gory for Lakers

So who will save them now?

The savior rebounder begged out again. The savior shooter had tonsillitis, sat out his second consecutive game and wouldn’t have helped the Lakers much in this debacle, anyway.

The savior center went out and did his job, but Shaquille O’Neal’s solo warfare was lost in a sea of Trail Blazer sprints and swats on the way to a merciless, 113-86 Portland victory Tuesday at the Rose Garden.

In every measurable sense--margin of defeat, thoroughness of destruction, retooling of the Western Conference elite--it was the Lakers’ worst loss of the season, in addition to their fourth loss in their last seven games, and their next game is Saturday in Utah, against the Jazz.

On Tuesday, the Trail Blazers’ full-court, full-roster injection of energy and talent seemed to not only knock the Lakers out of contention for the Pacific Division title (they are now 5 1/2 games behind Portland with 10 to play).

It seemed to knock out much of their resolve.

“I’m very disappointed,” said O’Neal, who had 24 points, 15 rebounds, and, with Glen Rice back home, was the only Laker starter to make at least half of his shots (nine of 16).

“We need to get some heart. We need to be about it instead of talking about it all of the time.”

And though O’Neal probably was not specifically speaking about Dennis Rodman, he might as well have.

At halftime on Tuesday, Rodman, who had four rebounds in the first two quarters, pulled himself out of the game, this time telling trainer Gary Vitti that he was injured.

It was for the fourth time in his 23 games as a Laker that Rodman has told the coaching staff that he was either emotionally or physically unable to answer their request to return to a game--which doesn’t even count the four he missed because of personal issues.

“He said his elbow was bothering him, and I’ll take it for that,” said Coach Kurt Rambis, tersely.

But maybe it was about something else: Rodman shook his head slowly and appeared to be dismayed when Rambis took him out of the game with 2:31 left in the second quarter.

At that point, the Lakers were trailing, 54-35, and Rodman was consistently getting beat on the low post and on the fastbreak by Rasheed Wallace and Brian Grant, two of the seven Trail Blazers who ended the game with double-digit points.

Did Rambis think that the second-quarter removal caused Rodman to ask out for the rest of the game?

“That’s a question,” Rambis said, “you have to ask Dennis.”

Rodman declined to speak to Laker beat writers, but told a TNT interviewer: “I play through the pain, but I just didn’t have it today.”

Rodman said he had been sick the last week or so, and had lost four or five pounds as a result.

O’Neal did not blink when asked if he thought Rodman had a pattern of abandoning his teammates.

“He said he was hurt,” O’Neal said. “I really didn’t know what happened. But, I mean, I hope he really was hurt. Because if he really wasn’t hurt . . . I needed him out there with me.”

Robert Horry said he believed that Rodman’s elbow hurt, because he has been in the locker room when Rodman has been complaining about it the last few days.

Kobe Bryant, who had a tough time with Portland’s active defense, making only seven of his 19 shots, said the Lakers can’t get caught up in Rodman’s drama.

“I think if he’s able to play, go out there and play,” Bryant said. “If it hurts a little bit, suck it up. He knows that, he played with Detroit.”

Rodman, though a distraction again, wasn’t the reason the Lakers lost this one.

In the teams’ eagerly anticipated first matchup of the season, the Lakers were blasted early by Portland’s defensive pressure and speed--falling behind by 13 points a few minutes into the second quarter--they put up far too many wild, quick shots (and shot only 39% in the game), and were generally no match for Portland’s depth, intensity and hunger.

The Lakers (25-15), who have three more games left against the Trail Blazers, have eliminated Portland in the last two postseasons, a streak that does not appear to be set to continue.

“It really wasn’t a true Laker performance,” Horry said. “Not taking anything away from Portland, they played a great, great game. But you can’t get down. Because we weren’t at full strength.”

Said O’Neal: “It doesn’t raise any doubts in my mind. Because we still didn’t play well. . . . Once we get our stuff together, I still think we can beat this team.”

But, Rambis was asked in the post-mortem, didn’t Portland prove it was a better team than the Lakers right now?

“I don’t think there is any doubt about that,” Rambis said.

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This time, Taylor and Douglas make big plays in the third quarter and they hold off Nets to win two in a row for the first time since January 1998. Page 3

NOTES: Rambis will give Harper more rest so he is not burned out before the playoffs. Rice should be back for Jazz Saturday. Page 5

NBA ROUNDUP: Page 4