Home Not Sweet for Trail Blazers

The jackals rode anew Friday night, backed by a loyal city and fans toting homemade signs to the arena and a point guard turned scribe all sticking it to noted zoologist Phil Jackson . . . only to end up right back where they started.

Trail Blazers in defeat.

“We went to L.A. and got what we wanted,” forward Detlef Schrempf said. “Then we gave it right back.”

They lost the game and the chance to back the Lakers on to the ledge in the Western Conference finals, and lost it while blowing a 14-point lead. They lost it while failing to hit the rim in the final three possessions of a tight game, when victory would have meant a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series with another game at home Sunday.

Or are jackals also known to be clumsy?

“We just lost some rhythm throughout the game,” Scottie Pippen said after his 12 points, nine rebounds, six assists and two steals went to waste. “We fell off, fell off, fell off. Finally, the wheels just fell off.”

Said Brian Grant: “I felt like we gave this game away.”

The also gave away a double-digit lead, chances to still win in the closing seconds, and the momentum in the series.

The Trail Blazers came in super-charged, back home in front of loud fans who screamed and waved signs to blast back at Jackson for his dig about the team’s behavior at the end of Game 2 in Los Angeles. Among the countless homemade signs that typically dot the stands in the Rose Garden, many were in reference to said statement--Night of the Jackals, etc. Jackson was booed when showed on the video scoreboard. And then there were the Trail Blazers themselves.

After spending the three off days before Game 3 dismissing the comment--”That’s just Phil,” Steve Smith, knowing an attempted psyche job when he hears one--a voice of defiance was finally heard Friday. Damon Stoudamire, in his playoff diary for the Oregonian, returned serve.

“I hear Phil Jackson said we were running around like jackals on our bench at the end of Monday’s game,” wrote Stoudamire, Portland’s starting point guard. “Funny, I didn’t see anybody celebrating. We will save all that for when we win the series.”

What followed come game time was a 15-2 lead, as Portland made six of its first seven shots, and a 14-point advantage in the second quarter.

That lead went because: a) the Trail Blazers lost their intensity; b) the Trail Blazers stopped playing defense; c) the Trail Blazers took too many quick shots in the second half; or d) the Lakers started playing like the Lakers of the regular season.

Try all of the above.

Either way, it made for a crash and burn. Wheels everywhere.

The chances in the closing seconds? Balls everywhere.

With 48 seconds remaining in a 91-91 game, Pippen made a bad pass under the basket, which Glen Rice intercepted and Ron Harper soon turned into the winning points on a 19-foot jumper with 29.9 left.

With the chance to reclaim a tie after Harper’s shot, Rasheed Wallace lost the ball to Kobe Bryant with about 20 seconds remaining.

Down two, the Trail Blazers went for the tie instead of a potential winning three-pointer. Arvydas Sabonis, who has great shooting range and passing ability for a center, passed up an 18-footer and penetrated, lumbering as he went. Bryant met him. The shot from about five feet out was blocked.

“The better percentage was for him to shoot the ball,” Pippen said.

The final three Trail Blazer possessions ended without the ball getting close to the basket, leaving Portland--can it be--desperate for a win before the series goes back to Los Angeles for Game 5?

“Portland knows that it’s at death’s door if it doesn’t win Sunday,” Jackson said.

Let’s see how the Blazermaniacs respond to that one.