Leap Day for Lakers

The Lakers took the battle for the Pacific up north Tuesday, and rode a defensive wave to one of the most meaningful regular-season victories the NBA has seen in years.

It was about first place in the Pacific Division, about the top seeding in the Western Conference postseason positioning, and about the best record in the league.

The Lakers seized all of them with their 90-87 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers before 20,584 at the Rose Garden.

Shaquille O’Neal (who made nine of his 13 free-throw attempts) and Kobe Bryant (22 points), as usual, carried the offensive load and Brian Shaw chipped in 23 crucial minutes off the bench.

But it was the constant, crushing defense of the Lakers, from Bryant to Shaw to Robert Horry, that won this game, and held the Trail Blazers, one of the league’s best field-goal shooting teams, to 40% from the field (36 for 89).

Scottie Pippen made only seven of 18 shots, Rasheed Wallace was seven for 16, and Damon Stoudamire, whom the Lakers worried about most, made four of 11.

Laker Coach Phil Jackson, for his part, called O’Neal’s free-throw shooting “the story of the game” and pointed to his two fourth-quarter makes as the critical points.

“That’s the reason we won,” Jackson said.

Does that mean O’Neal, who has been fouled hard in Portland in the recent past, has finally conquered the Hack-a-Shaq strategy?

“That never worked,” O’Neal said. “Whenever I concentrate, I shoot them like Jerry West. When I don’t concentrate, I shoot them like Wilt [Chamberlain].”

Before the game, Jackson predicted that the winner of this game would go on to win the Pacific Division and did not pull back after it.

“Yes, I do,” Jackson said if he still feels that way. “It gives us a leg up on winning this conference and this division, that’s all I can say. Now we have to take care of the job that we’ve done.

“We’ve created a situation for ourselves to get out here and get down the stretch, run ahead of them.”

It was the first time in league history that two teams with 11-game winning streaks had met.

It was also the first time in eight regular-season games that the Lakers (46-11) had won in Portland, dating back to 1995.

The Lakers struggled early, grabbed a quick lead early in the second quarter, then upped it to 42-32 late in the half, as Portland missed shot after shot, on its way to a 17-for-45 first-half outing (37.8%).

The Lakers had a 75-64 lead with 9:34 left to play when the big Portland surge began.

The Trail Blazers (45-12) forced the Lakers into consecutive turnovers and scored quickly off of both, and suddenly, it was 75-70 and Jackson immediately called a timeout.

A few minutes later, Greg Anthony’s transition three-pointer--right after Derek Fisher missed a layup attempt--tied it at 80-80, with 4:45 left and the crowd raging.

With 3:07 left, Pippen’s long three-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer gave the Trail Blazers an 85-84 lead.

But Portland could not score on its next four possessions, Bryant was fouled and made two free throws and Ron Harper made one of two with 32.1 seconds left to give the Lakers an 87-85 lead. Stoudamire missed a jumper and O’Neal made one of two free throws to make the lead three.

Pippen missed a long try and Steve Smith threw one up wildly as he fell out of bounds. That essentially ended it, and the Lakers hugged each other and laughed their way off the floor at the buzzer.

O’Neal, who made only seven of his 17 shot tries against the tall Trail Blazer defenders, said he figures the Lakers will have to beat Portland several more times down the road--in the Western Conference finals.

“To be the best, you have to beat the best,” O’Neal said. “Whoever we meet in the playoffs, it doesn’t matter. As long as we do what we have to do, I like our chances.

“Win or lose, it wasn’t going to break our season. Now that we did win, we can’t have any more slippage. The reason we have identical records is we had slippage, we lost six out of nine.”

Glen Rice, talking to reporters for the first time in weeks, said the players know there are plenty of games left, but he did not downplay the importance of the win.

“I’m sure down the road this game’s going to come back and have a lot of meaning,” Rice said.

“I think that’s going to definitely help us mentally, knowing that we can come in here and beat this team.”

Said Jackson: “It’s a relief. Go ahead, we won a game. The loser also has an advantage. They learned something and they’ll be a little more gritty the next time.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE SHOWDOWN

CURRENT STREAK

The Lakers have won 12 in a row. A look at the score and the opponent’s field-goal percentage in each game:

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Opponent Score (Pct.) 1. Utah 113-67 (.296) 2. Denver 106-98 (.419) 3. Minnesota 114-81 (.341) 4. at Chicago 88-76 (.377) 5. at Charlotte 92-85 (.416) 6. at Orlando 07-99, OT (.454) 7. at Philadelphia 87-84 (.388) 8. at New Jersey 97-89 (.436) 9. at Cleveland 116-98 (.468) 10. Boston 109-96 (.416) 11. Houston 101-85 (.358) 12. at Portland 90-87 (.404)

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GAME BREAKDOWN

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LAKERS PORTLAND .449 Field-Goal Pct. .404 6-15 3-Pointers 4-17 22-27 Free throws 11-14 43 Rebounds 44 11 Offensive Rebounds 17 13 2nd-Chance Points 10 19 Turnovers 11 15 Points Off Turnovers 17 13 Fastbreak Points 5 25 Bench Scoring 18

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THE STRETCH RUN

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LAKERS PORTLAND 25 Games left 25 16 Teams Over .500 13 9 Teams Below .500 12

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