A thorn in their side

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Even when it matters -- like, really matters -- the Lakers can’t win in Portland.

The door to the Western Conference was thrown open earlier in the night, but the Lakers couldn’t advance toward it after losing to the Trail Blazers, as usual, 112-103, Tuesday at the Rose Garden.

Not even a rare home loss by first-place New Orleans was enough motivation for the Lakers to overcome their shaky history at the Rose Garden, where they are now a numbing 6-19 since it opened in 1995.

Rain or shine -- mostly rain -- the Lakers have failed to achieve much of anything here. Tuesday was no different.

The Trail Blazers ripped through the Lakers’ defense over and over, showed up with a 58-point first half and finished with enough purpose to serve the Lakers a substantial setback in trying to win the West.

The third-place Lakers (53-25) still trail the Hornets (54-23) by 1 1/2 games and now trail idle San Antonio (53-24) by half a game. New Orleans lost to Utah, 77-66, on Tuesday. The Lakers have four games left in the regular season.

Meanwhile, it was another night of career and season highs for Lakers opponents.

Brandon Roy tied a career high with 12 assists, LaMarcus Aldridge took a season-high 16 rebounds, and Channing Frye had season highs with 22 points and 11 rebounds for the Trail Blazers (39-39), who were playing for nothing more than pride.

The Lakers have now lost their last six games in Portland, though this one stung more than the others.

“They looked like they were the team that was preparing for the race in the West,” Lamar Odom said. “We looked like the team that was preparing for the long vacation.”

Portland had hardly been shaking up the West, with pitiable outputs on offense, including a 65-point effort in a seven-point loss to San Antonio on Sunday.

But the Trail Blazers shot 51.2% in the first half and fended off a late rally by the Lakers to take the victory.

“They were raining pretty good out there, I’ll tell you that,” Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said. “We talked a lot about that before the game, about the fact that they had 80-point, 60-point games recently. That’s frustrating to a team. If they come and they start going good offensively, they’ll really feel good about themselves, and they did.”

Kobe Bryant had 34 points and Pau Gasol had 21 points and 13 rebounds, but each suffered defensive lapses as well.

The Lakers cut what had been an 18-point deficit to 104-101 after an easy layup by Bryant with 54.9 seconds left, but Roy returned the favor by blowing past Bryant and converting a three-point play after getting fouled by Gasol on a layup.

Gasol made two free throws at the other end to move the Lakers to within 107-103, but Jarrett Jack answered with two free throws and Sasha Vujacic missed a three-point attempt with 14.9 seconds to play.

As if the Lakers’ effort on defense didn’t irritate him enough, Jackson was also unhappy with a couple of calls by the referees. He was hit with a technical foul with 9:42 to go in the third quarter, and Odom was charged with a flagrant foul with 30.9 seconds left in the third.

“There’s no reason for my technical foul at all,” Jackson said. “I just said, ‘Are you calling the first foul or the second foul?’ and he gave me a T for that.”

Odom was whistled after fouling Roy on a drive to the basket. Roy fell hard on his tailbone, and Portland forward Travis Outlaw moved toward Odom under the basket. Odom said something to Outlaw, and the two had to be separated.

“I thought that was a critical play of the game,” Jackson said. “Roy got up in the air. There wasn’t anything flagrant about that foul at all.”

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mike.bresnahan@latimes.com