Team Happy but Not Satisfied

After crushing the Lakers by 29 points in Game 2 Monday night, the Portland locker room did not have a bunch of players cheering and acting like they won something big. Instead, the Trail Blazers went about their business as if they expected to win at least one game in Los Angeles.

“We expect to win every time we play, but it’s kind of tough on the road, and we got this one,” high-scoring reserve guard Bonzi Wells said. “We know it is a seven-game series, and we’ve got to go back to Portland. The [Lakers] are a great team and we’re going to have to come out and play hard.”

What the Trail Blazers did talk about is how they executed their game plan much better than they did in their blowout loss in Game 1.

“I think we were aggressive going to the basket, trying to draw fouls, rather than settling for jump shots,” said Steve Smith, who finished with 24 points on eight-for-14 shooting.

“We settled for jump shots too much in the first game . . . [during Portland’s 20-0 third quarter run] we were just aggressive going to the basket trying to get them into foul trouble.”

Smith said Sunday’s workout was very productive for the Trail Blazers because the team realized their poor play was the reason for the Game 1 defeat.

“Well, I think Game 1 helped us, where we didn’t come out well in the second quarter and then we got focused,” Smith said. “We had a good day of practice [Sunday] and we came here more determined.”

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Coach Mike Dunleavy was pleased with Portland gaining the home-court, but he realizes the series is far from over.

“When you are the road team coming in, your idea is to try and shift the advantage of the home court,” Dunleavy said. “You got to get at least one ballgame and obviously that was our goal and we were able to accomplish it.”

Added reserve forward Detlef Schrempf: “We wanted to come down here and steal one, and that’s what we did, and now we have to keep our home-court advantage, which will be tough. We have some advantages, and we wanted to, not like last game where we didn’t shoot a free-throw in the first half, take advantage of them and get to the foul line.”

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Smith on Rasheed Wallace: “He was great . . . I think everybody realized how much of a key he is for us. We’ve got to have him on the floor, and I think if you look at the way he played, we’re really going to struggle without him out there.”