Blazers’ Plan Exposes Flaws in Laker System

This time the Portland Trail Blazers didn’t need gimmicks to show that Shaquille O’Neal is a lousy free-throw shooter, which we all knew anyway.

In Game 2 the Blazers used a ruthless defense to tear the facade away from the Lakers and expose every flaw in their roster and system.

The ramifications of Portland’s 106-77 victory Monday night go far deeper than the veneer of invincibility the Kings and Suns removed in the first two rounds.

That was a scratch on the car’s paint job. This is a flat tire, plus some disturbing sounds coming from beneath the hood.

We’re talking fundamental problems the Lakers must find a way to work around, because there’s nothing they can do to change them at this point.

They don’t have a penetrating guard (Kobe Bryant is a slasher, which is different).

They don’t have backup big men who can score.

They don’t have role players who can catch-and-shoot and consistently knock down the open jumper.

The Lakers like to run their offense from inside-out. But Portland turned them upside-down.

The Lakers usually dominate the middle, but on Monday were outscored 52-30 inside.

O’Neal managed only three shots and made just one in the first quarter, and that was when things were going relatively well for the Lakers.

Foul trouble limited O’Neal to only five minutes in the second quarter, and John Salley and Travis Knight lost the confidence of their teammates when they couldn’t handle passes inside.

In the decisive third quarter, the entire Laker team produced two field goals and eight points.

Portland’s second-round series against Utah effectively ended as soon as it became obvious that the Jazz couldn’t run their standard pick-and-roll against the Blazers.

Now it appears that the Lakers can’t count on dumping the ball inside to O’Neal, letting him wreak havoc or find teammates cutting to the hoop.

The Trail Blazers are forcing the Lakers to keep the ball outside. Even when it does get to O’Neal he’s having difficulty finding open teammates inside.

“In the triangle offense, you try to defend the penetration as much as you can--basically take it away from a passing standpoint,” Scottie Pippen said. “We were able to do that.”

Pippen basically took away everything himself. He led Portland’s double- and triple-teams of O’Neal, he cheated and shifted over to help on Bryant, he scrapped for loose balls and he turbocharged the offense in a masterful 21-point, 11-rebound, three-steal performance. Even when he was out of the game Pippen still played defense, standing along the sideline instructing teammates.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have a long-armed 6-11 power forward like Rasheed Wallace who can run out to help on jump shooters.

But it starts with the interior defense. As Pippen said, the triangle offense likes to get the ball inside with the pass. It’s not designed for players to make long dribble-drives to the hoop, and the Lakers don’t have anyone capable of breaking down a defense off the dribble anyway.

Ron Harper is too slow, Derek Fisher isn’t a threat to finish and Bryant is most effective on short drives from the free-throw line or the wings (not that Portland gave him that option Monday night).

As a result, the Lakers are panicking. They’re forcing outside shots. They’re playing, as Coach Phil Jackson said, with “desperation.”

The desperation is just beginning. Now they have to win a game in Portland to get to the Finals.

The Trail Blazers didn’t even have to resort to their junk defense of fouling O’Neal away from the ball, as they did in Game 1.

They did take advantage of the rule changes that allow defenders to double-team a player without the ball on the strong side.

Portland dropped an extra man down on Shaq whenever it could, preventing the Lakers from making the entry pass.

And because the player holding the ball on O’Neal’s side usually was a mediocre outside shooter like Harper or A.C. Green, they could do so without worrying about giving up the open jump shot.

The Trail Blazers kept saying their strategy didn’t change from Game 1. What was different was the effort and their job of rotating to open shooters. That affected the other big difference, the drop in the Lakers’ three-point shooting from 47% (nine of 19) in Game 1 to six of 23 (26%) in Game 2.

The Lakers thought they had solved their outside shooting problem when they traded for Glen Rice last year, but they have found that he is not as effective when he is not the primary scoring threat.

Even if the Lakers did try to make Rice their top option, it would be hard to do it in this system. The triangle offense has made heroes out of guys like John Paxson and Steve Kerr, but it doesn’t suit the strengths of Rice, who likes to come off screens and move from side to side.

The Lakers can’t rely on Harper, Brian Shaw, Robert Horry and Rick Fox to make three-point shots. That’s not their strength, and it wasn’t the formula for winning 67 games this season.

But that’s all the Trail Blazers are willing to give them.

“We’ve got our work cut out this weekend,” Jackson said, referring to the two games in the Rose Garden.

But the work really will have to be done during the three days off days beforehand, when the Lakers must find a way to counter a Portland defense that has the answers, and Portland players who are getting a confident look in their eyes.

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