Lakers Face Long Road to Top

When it seemed the Lakers had played themselves into a more difficult postseason, having lost when Kobe Bryant’s 30-footer was wide and long Sunday afternoon, they made almost nothing of it.

They’ll play in spring for a fourth championship, somewhat of a question two months ago, but they probably won’t do it with even an ounce of home-court advantage, not after their 101-99 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, a team once thought to be dead and gone, at the Rose Garden.

The Lakers probably will have to go it on the road, starting this weekend, perhaps as the sixth-seeded team against the Dallas Mavericks.

Bryant raised his chin slightly and said, “We’ve pretty much seen it all,” as though little mattered other than the arrival of the postseason.

This morning, after Rasheed Wallace made a three-point shot with 4.1 seconds left for the game-winning points, after 36 points each by Shaquille O’Neal and Bryant still left them two points short, the Lakers awake with 32 losses, one more than the Trail Blazers (49-31) and Minnesota Timberwolves (50-31), and in sixth place.

While the Lakers (48-32) still can clinch the fourth spot -- and home-court advantage in the first round starting Saturday or Sunday -- they would have to win their remaining games Tuesday against Denver and Wednesday at Golden State, and have the Trail Blazers (versus Phoenix on Tuesday, at the Clippers on Wednesday) and Timberwolves (at Memphis on Wednesday) lose out.

In the event of a three-way tie, the Timberwolves, because they beat the Trail Blazers three times, would get the fourth spot. The Lakers would get the fifth spot -- and begin play in the upper bracket, away from the Sacramento Kings and Mavericks.

“We’re not going to negotiate through that right now,” Coach Phil Jackson said.

Indeed, after the Lakers rallied from substantial deficits, after pressure on the Trail Blazers seemed to push them into the usual paranoid places, the Lakers appeared on the verge of their seventh consecutive win. It was the victory that would have nudged their momentum forward again, against the last playoff-quality opponent they’d see until the real thing. Bryant made three shots in the final 2:19, including a 21-footer with 34.4 seconds remaining that gave the Lakers a 99-98 lead.

“I think we all felt it would take a pretty miraculous effort,” Laker forward Rick Fox said of the Trail Blazers. “They responded accordingly.”

Damon Stoudamire missed a shot with 12.1 seconds left and O’Neal and Bryant waved at the rebound, which went to Derek Anderson. Anderson whipped a pass to Stoudamire at the top of the key, and Stoudamire passed to Wallace on the left wing. Wallace, who made a 17-footer from the same wing 40 seconds earlier, made the three-pointer.

“It was all right,” Wallace said.

With 3.6 seconds left, the Lakers ran the play that beat Memphis on April 4, only this time Bryant didn’t come open after taking the inbounds from Robert Horry, and he was forced to shoot over Ruben Patterson and Wallace.

“Basically, it was the same play,” Horry said. “But the play was supposed to do something different. I’d rather not say what.”

Go in, maybe.

Wallace scored 21 points. Bonzi Wells fouled out, but made 11 of 15 shots and scored 29 points. Anderson scored 18 points.

The Lakers lacked the same sense of balance. After O’Neal and Bryant’s 72, no one else scored in double figures. Horry didn’t shoot in 32 minutes. (“Blame it on the rain,” O’Neal said. “When it rains, your joints hurt you. If you were a big man, you’d know that. But you’re a little runt, so you don’t know.”) And the Lakers missed 11 free throws, nine of them by O’Neal.

“Just missed them,” he said.

The Lakers had their first lead at 82-81. Bryant made a 19-footer with 7:05 remaining, a stride from the right elbow, and Maurice Cheeks jumped to call a timeout, and all the people wearing red sat down, and all the people wearing gold stood up.

In every locker room, before every game, the Lakers run a videotape of a game featuring the day’s opponent. Often, it goes ignored, as the players move about getting treatment or tending to their pregame preparations.

The television in Portland hangs from the ceiling, and the game on it Sunday morning featured the Trail Blazers, as expected, except nearly every Laker sat on his chair, before his locker, rapt.

The Trail Blazer foe was the Lakers. Half of the players in the locker room had played in the game. None of them admitted to having seen it since. It was Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference finals. The Lakers, down 15 in the fourth quarter, rallied and advanced.

Nearly three years later, they trailed by 11 points in the first quarter, by 13 in the second, by nine in the third, and by nine two minutes before Bryant, who scored 32 points in the second half, gave them the lead.