HOW THEY MATCH UP

STARTERS: EDGE, LAKERS

All of the Portland starters other than center Arvydas Sabonis had higher scoring averages against the Lakers than they did against the rest of the league. In contrast, the Trail Blazers held Shaquille O’Neal to more than nine points below his average and Glen Rice to more than four. Guard Damon Stoudamire (team-high 17.5 scoring average against the Lakers) can hurt the bigger Laker guards with penetration, but he also is overmatched on defense against Kobe Bryant, who averaged 24.3 points against Portland.

BENCH: EDGE BLAZERS

Brian Grant, Detlef Schrempf, Greg Anthony, Bonzi Wells, et al, give the Trail Blazers energy and the ability to score points in bunches. But in Portland’s best game against the Lakers--a 95-91 victory on Jan. 22 at Staples Center--the Trail Blazer reserves combined for only four points. In the Lakers’ season-altering Feb. 29 victory at Portland, Brian Shaw had nine points and seven rebounds to lead a 25-point, 14-rebound uprising by the Laker reserves.

OFFENSE: EDGE, LAKERS

Led by O’Neal, who is averaging 29.8 points, the Lakers are the highest-scoring team remaining in the playoffs (101.4), by far, but most of that is because of their matchups against non-defense-minded Sacramento and Phoenix in the first two rounds. Portland, led by Steve Smith at 16.2, is averaging only 90.6 but has received at least one double-digit scoring game from nine different players.

DEFENSE: EDGE, BLAZERS

These teams have shown that they can shut each other down. In the four-game regular-season series split, the losing team averaged only 84.7 points. The Lakers, who held Phoenix to 23 points in the first half of Game 5, play straight-up defense and feed everything into O’Neal. Portland’s is a hectic, chaos-causing defense, led by Scottie Pippen and Rasheed Wallace, who both figure to see double-team duty on O’Neal.

COACHING: EDGE, LAKERS

Hold on tight for big strategic adjustments, loud complaints about the refereeing and not-subtle jibes at each other from Mike Dunleavy and Phil Jackson, who faced each other nine years ago when Jackson’s Chicago Bulls beat Dunleavy’s Lakers in the NBA finals. Jackson already has a mini-edge: He coaxed the Lakers to the Feb. 29 victory, which all but decided the No. 1 seeding in the playoffs.

KEY TO THE SERIES: EDGE, LAKERS

Can the Trail Blazers make players other than Bryant and O’Neal defeat them? And if that happens, can Glen Rice outplay Smith on the perimeter? If the action boils down to O’Neal and Bryant running hot versus the Portland sharpshooters, that won’t be good for the balanced Trail Blazers, who let seven or eight players get the chance to be go-to guys. Pick: Lakers, 4-3.