Jackson’s Soul Train of Thought

Tiny gray whiskers are beginning to push out from beneath Phil Jackson’s lower lip, and so it appears the soul patch, gone for months, will return.

Jackson, it seems, is beginning to feel like himself again at the end of a season in which he never denigrated an NBA city or its inhabitants, despite two trips to Sacramento and another to Milwaukee, both of which provided ample opportunity.

The Lakers play the Portland Trail Blazers today at the Rose Garden in Portland, where a victory would sweep the Trail Blazers from the best-of-five first-round playoff series and thus supply the Lakers and Shaquille O’Neal with adequate rest before the next round.

The Trail Blazers’ arena often is home to angry, outspoken people, whether unhappy with the Lakers or with their own team, a churlish, financially bloated bunch that feels put upon by referees and NBA lords and men in soul patches.

Jackson on Saturday afternoon considered the edgy environment. Dangerous and ill-tempered as the place is, the Lakers completed last year’s first-round sweep in the very same building.

Before that game, Portland’s Scottie Pippen appeared on the television that hung from the ceiling of the Laker locker room, explaining how the Trail Blazers expected to win that game.

Kobe Bryant stood, shook his head and walked straight through the room.

“You’re ... crazy, man,” Bryant said to the monitor. “Today’s your last day of work.”

And so it was, and now the Lakers find themselves in the very same spot, having won Games 1 and 2 with relative ease, hoping to win the third in a gym stuffed with antagonistic Northwesterners.

Already on Saturday, Jackson had compared the game to the Last Supper and the media to Judas. Appropriately, he wore sandals, the kind Jesus would wear if He had had a shoe contract and had won 10 NBA titles. The Portland folks, who hold up nasty signs and chuck tiny Bill Walton dummies and heave loud, aggressive insults, puzzle Jackson, truth be told.

He grinned and rocked back on his heels.

“I’m actually surprised Portland people can actually root for their players, given the type of character they display on the court,” Jackson said. “They somehow manage to. Maybe they owe their allegiance because they carry the name of the town on their backs, I don’t know.

“Other than that,” he continued, “I don’t think the pressure should bother us. I mean, it is the only game in town in Portland. But there are other things. The [minor-league] Beavers play in the rain sometimes. It’s nice in the summertime for a month or so. So, it does allow them to have outdoor activities.”

It went on like that for a while.

“I love Oregon,” he said eventually. “I think it’s a nice place to vacation. I hope [the Trail Blazers] go on vacation after tomorrow.”

His eyes showed amusement at that. The Trail Blazers had their usual Game 2 moments Thursday, when they imploded while getting beaten anyway. Dale Davis was ejected after receiving two technicals inside half a minute, and Bonzi Wells and Pippen fouled out, Wells by the end seemingly committing fouls for the sport of it. Ruben Patterson drew a flagrant foul for winding up and hacking O’Neal across the forearms.

Last year, the Trail Blazers also went Sponge Bob-Square Pants in Game 2, when Arvydas Sabonis flopped cartoonishly away from O’Neal and inadvertently struck teammate Rasheed Wallace in the face. Angry because Sabonis could not defend O’Neal or because it caused him to bleed from the mouth, Wallace threw a towel in Sabonis’ face.

That day, the Trail Blazers were called for five technical fouls and had two players ejected. Davis, their center, has been ejected from consecutive Games 2, last year for trying to elbow Robert Horry in the throat, an attack that also had him suspended for Game 3.

While implosion was followed by elimination then, Jackson said he does not necessarily suspect the same simple transition this time.

“I think it spilled over into their final game,” he said. “I don’t expect that this year. I expect them to give us a run for it all the way through the game.”

The Lakers practiced early Saturday, then flew to Portland. They arranged last week, before the results of the series’ first two games, to return to Los Angeles tonight. If there is a Game 4 on Wednesday, they’ll travel on Tuesday.

After playing well for most of Thursday’s seven-point victory, leading in the fourth quarter by 21 before ignoring the final five minutes, the Lakers were eager to play again. Dating to Game 6 of the 2000 NBA Finals, the Lakers have won five consecutive close-out games.

“It feels like waiting for the Last Supper,” Jackson said. “You know, it’s either exoneration or execution.”