Playoffs 2000:Frustrated Lakers will try again at home

Frustrated Lakers will try again at home
Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. -- For the second straight game, Shaquille O'Neal was an absentee MVP in the fourth quarter, and the Los Angeles Lakers failed to finish off the Portland Trail Blazers.


	Phil Jackson hopes he can figure out a way for his Lakers to beat the Blazers on Sunday.

O'Neal scored just 17 points Friday night -- four in the fourth quarter -- as the Blazers built up another big lead in the final period and held on for a 103-93 victory in Game 6.

"I thought they played extremely well on Shaquille," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "He had to struggle all night."

Portland, which won a conference final game at home for the first time since 1992, will try to pull off an improbable comeback from a 3-1 deficit on Sunday in Game 7.

"This is what we anticipated this series was going to come to: a seven-game series," Jackson said. "It's tough to beat a good team like Portland three times in a row on their home court. We knew that was going to be an uphill battle."

Kobe Bryant hit four 3-pointers in the final three minutes, but with O'Neal hardly a factor, the Lakers had no hope of rallying from an eight-point deficit to start the fourth quarter.

"We just didn't concentrate," O'Neal said. "But we're due for a good game at home."

O'Neal took just one shot in the final period -- a 4-foot hook shot that pulled the Lakers to 77-68 with 9:31 left. He was 2-for-2 from the line, but wasn't a part of the Lakers' offense at all in the last 5:25.

It was similar to Game 5, when the Blazers began the fourth with an 80-67 lead and didn't let up. In that quarter, Shaq took just four shots and made two.

Bryant said O'Neal will be more aggressive on Sunday.

"There was a lot of bumping and shoving and pushing going on," Bryant said. "You can't call a foul on every possession. But Shaq's a big, strong guy. He'll be ready to play on Sunday."

The last time the Blazers won at home in the conference finals was May 26, 1992, when Portland beat Utah 127-121 in overtime in Game 5.

"Thank God we have homecourt advantage in this series," Bryant said. "In this series, it seems like it doesn't mean much, but to us it means much. We fought all season long to get homecourt advantage, and we have to go back and gut it out."

The Lakers, who let the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns off the hook before eliminating them in previous rounds, clearly were annoyed at their inability to put the Blazers away.

With 36.6 seconds left, Los Angeles' Rick Fox and Blazers coach Mike Dunleavy got into a profanity-filled argument, resulting in a technical foul on each man. Steve Smith and Fox then exchanged words. Meanwhile, Scottie Pippen, angry that Fox had hit his sore shoulder earlier, urged the crowd on by waving his arms.

O'Neal made just three of 10 free throws, but the rest of the Lakers couldn't hit either. Bryant and Shaw each missed two in the fourth.

"I definitely feel if we made our free throws, we would have been in the game," Glen Rice said.

O'Neal didn't react well to Pippen double-teaming him during the game, but he missed some easy shots in the second half. He missed his first five shots in the third quarter, all from close range, and finished the period with just five points.

During that time, the Lakers actually had a chance to rally. Rice's 3-pointer pulled them to 51-47 with 9:10 left in the third, but Smith converted a layup, and the Blazers weren't threatened again.