THE OREGONIAN

Damon Stoudamire doesn’t know if his days in Portland are numbered, but if they are, the Trail Blazer guard said he would not leave his hometown with a good feeling.

“If Portland was to trade me, the only thing I would be mad about is it would be the first time in my whole life I’ve never been able to conquer a situation,” Stoudamire said. ‘That’s the only thing that would hurt me in the end, that I was never able to fulfill my expectations as a Blazer.

“And I think if anyone else on this team had to answer that question, they would answer the same way. So much has been put into building this team over the last three years, and if we walk away empty-handed, then you can say what you want . . . but basically it was a waste.”

Stoudamire, who has four years left on his contract, would not answer if he wants to come back to the Trail Blazers next season.

“Don’t ask me that during the playoffs,” he said.

At the moment, Stoudamire has more pressing issues. Such as stopping Laker guard Derek Fisher, and trying to identify a way to pull the Blazers out of their recent fourth-quarter malaise. Fisher had 21 points on seven-of-10 shooting in Game 1, which followed a 21-point performance on April 15 when he made seven of 12. Those are the only times Fisher played the Trail Blazers this season, because he sat out the first 62 games.

“He had been injured for six months, and in that six-month period all he must have done was shoot stationary jumpers,” Stoudamire said. “You have to give him credit, he’s confident and knocking his shots down. To a certain extent, our game plan is to let him shoot, but still, you have to get hands up on him.”

In Game 1, Stoudamire said his play was “suspect.” He had 18 points, but 10 of them came late in the fourth quarter when the game was out of hand. He has shown he can dribble past Fisher and into the lane. But once there, Stoudamire was unable to make shots over Shaquille O’Neal, and his teammates missed several jumpers when he found them open on the perimeter.

“The thing about attacking the Lakers is it’s so hard when you have Shaq just sitting there,” Stoudamire said.

The rest of the series figures to be a mental struggle for Stoudamire, who will toy between playing the system and playing his game. Either way, he says it’s time to leave no questions unanswered.

“If we lose this series, I’m not going to go out of here with my guns still loaded,” Stoudamire said. “It’s going to be empty, I’m going to have an empty clip and I’m going to let it all hang out. I’m going to find a way to find that flow in the game.

“And that’s the thing. We can change the whole perspective of what’s going on in this series in one night.”