It Won’t Be Easy to Knock Them Off the Trail

This was what we’ve been waiting for, two powerful rivals on the Staples Center floor.

But enough about Michael Eisner and Michael Ovitz.

Saturday’s Laker-Trail Blazer game was so good that the only way it could could have been topped would have been if the Disney chief executive and his former No. 2 guy renewed their feud, rushed out of their courtside seats and scrapped at midcourt.

Portland’s come-from-behind 95-91 victory showed the strength of both teams and cast some doubt over the Lakers’ ability to dominate the Western Conference and Pacific Division for the second half of the schedule.

“It’s going to be like that,” Kobe Bryant said. “That’s what’s exciting. That’s what’s challenging. It’s going to be like that all season long.”

It’s better this way, for all involved.

It forces the Lakers to to stay sharp and ensures every regular-season game will have significance. Yes, that means January NBA games with meaning. Just be forewarned that they won’t get any bigger than Saturday’s matchup, which attracted a sellout crowd, Hollywood power brokers, Academy Award-winning actors (Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington), comedians (Chris Rock and Dennis Miller) and a billionaire or two (hello, Paul Allen).

Even when the Lakers rolled off their 16 consecutive victories, Portland never fell behind by more than three games in the loss column.

“We were tracking them,” Portland Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “We knew what they were doing, and we knew that we had to stay close behind them.”

The Lakers couldn’t put them away in the standings and they learned Saturday how tough it is to finish them off in games. The Lakers shot 62% in the first quarter and all it got them was a tie. They took a 10-point lead into halftime and it wasn’t enough. Neither was seven-point lead midway through the fourth quarter.

To the Lakers’ credit, they didn’t quit even when they were down five points with 18.1 seconds remaining, and they actually had the ball with a chance to tie in the final 10 seconds.

Here’s what makes this matchup so great: Neither team can do anything to stop the other’s strengths and both teams have plenty of ways to counterattack.

“I don’t know which team has a weakness, or what it is,” Scottie Pippen said. Shaquille O’Neal is too agile and powerful for Portland’s Arvydas Sabonis. Brian Grant (who has gone from Portland’s starting power forward last year to backup center this year) is too small--although he puts up a good fight.

But Sabonis can help neutralize O’Neal’s defensive dominance of the middle by staying outside for jump shots.

Damon Stoudamire is too quick for anybody the Lakers put on him. But he’s too small to defend any of the big Laker guards.

Rasheed Wallace might be Portland’s best option when it gets to crunch time, and he happens to play the position that is L.A.’s weakest: power forward. He also happens to be the league’s most likely candidate to self-destruct. (His ejection during the third quarter at Dallas on Jan. 15 is the main reason Portland lost to the Mavericks.) Sooner or later, especially in the course of a long series, he’ll lose his cool.

So what decides it?

Kobe Bryant.

If he plays the way he did in the first half, when he seared the Trail Blazers for 18 points, he’s the guy who makes a difference.

If he plays the way he did in the second, when he committed both of his turnovers, plus a couple of ill-advised fouls that led to his disqualification, the Lakers are in trouble.

The Lakers’ feelings about Kobe are as complicated as Kobe himself, whose decision-making lags behind his talent.

The organization wants him to be patient and understands his development will take time, but on the other hand they can’t afford to wait too much longer and and are now reluctant to use his youth as an excuse.

“I think he’s at that point,” Lakers Vice President Jerry West said before the game.

There’s too much money invested in this team, too little guaranteed down the road (will Glen Rice be around next month, let alone next year?) to think 2001 or 2002.

Saturday’s game demonstrated just how much they need Bryant. After receiving his fifth personal foul by reaching in on Steve Smith after Smith secured a rebound, Bryant had to use his sixth foul to stop the clock with 14.1 seconds left in the game. Derek Fisher replaced him.

So after Grant missed both of the ensuing free throws, leaving the Lakers behind by two, they had to go for the tie without Shaq (taken out because of his free-throw shooting) and Bryant.

With Rice cut off, the ball wound up in Fisher’s hands against that defensive Doberman, Pippen. Not a good matchup for the Lakers. Fisher airballed a three-pointer.

For all of the frustrations that come from Kobe’s free-wheeling, at least he has the ability to get off his shot or get free throws and make them. That’s exactly what the Lakers needed at that time.

It’s what they’ll need for the second half of a season that just got a lot more interesting.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.