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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- In one week, the Portland Trail Blazers
have gone from "death's door" to the threshold of one of the
NBA's greatest comebacks.
|  | | Bonzi Wells scored a playoff career-high 20 points -- 14 of them in the fourth quarter. |
When it counted most, Portland finally beat the Los Angeles
Lakers at home Friday night, sending the Western Conference finals
to a deciding Game 7.
Steve Smith scored 26 points and Bonzi Wells had a
career-playoff high 20, 14 in the fourth quarter, as the Trail
Blazers took the lead halfway through the first quarter and never
gave it up in a 103-93 victory.
Kobe Bryant scored 33 points for Los Angeles and played the entire game despite a sprained right foot, but it wasn't enough.
The Trail Blazers, the team Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson said
was "at death's door" after the Lakers won twice in Portland a
week ago, can become the seventh team to come back from a 3-1
deficit to win a series, and the first to do it in the West finals.
"It was a team effort today," Scottie Pippen said. "It was a
great game. We knew what we were up against, and we stepped up to
the challenge."
Portland's second consecutive victory, and first at home in four
tries against Los Angeles, tied the series 3-3. Indiana's opponent
in the NBA Finals will be determined in a showdown Sunday in Los
Angeles, where the Blazers have won two in a row.
"We have to lay it all down," Shaquille O'Neal said. "The fans have to be ready, the city has to be ready and the players
have to be ready."
Jackson said he knew it would be difficult to beat Portland
three consecutive times in the Rose Garden, and his players
understand how tough this series is.
"They're not happy with their performance, that's for sure,"
Jackson said, "but they understand this is a war. We lost a battle
tonight, but the war's not over."
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Teams that have won after trailing 3-1
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Boston vs. Philadelphia, 1968 Eastern Division final-x
Los Angeles vs. Phoenix, 1970 Western Division final
Washington vs. San Antonio, 1979 Eastern Conference final
Boston vs. Philadelphia, 1981 Eastern Conference final-x
Houston vs. Phoenix, 1995 Western Conference semifinals-x
Miami vs. New York, 1997 Eastern Conference semifinals
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x-team won NBA championship
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O'Neal, averaging 29.2 points in the playoffs, had 17 points and
11 rebounds but was only 7-for-17 from the field and 3-for-10 at
the line.
"I thought they played extremely well on Shaquille," Jackson
said. "A lot of his touches were crowded. It was tough for us to
get spacing on the floor to get it in to him. But they were giving
us other things. We had the types of shots we wanted."
The intensity has built as the Blazers tightened the series.
"We've noticed as the games went on they started to turn away
from playing the game and started to do other activities away from
the game," Pippen said, "taking cheap shots at guys to try to
start altercations. I'm just telling my guys to stay focused, play
hard and try to walk away from it.
"Rick Fox said to me, 'It's going to be on in L.A.' I'm looking forward to it."
In the third quarter, O'Neal missed his first six shots and was
called for a flagrant foul for flattening Pippen on a drive to the
basket.
After lying on the floor for several minutes, Pippen got to his
feet and made one of two free throws to put Portland ahead 60-49
with 5:21 to play in the quarter.
"He hit me pretty hard," Pippen said. "It was obvious what he
was trying to do. He had no intention of going to the ball, so I'll
see if he gets fined $10,000."
Pippen was fined $10,000 for an elbow to the back of John
Salley's head late in Game 4.
Pippen scored a series-low nine points and was just 1-for-6 from
the field, but the deep, talented Blazers had more than enough
offense elsewhere with five players in double figures. Rasheed
Wallace scored 18, Damon Stoudamire 14, 10 in the first half, and Arvydas Sabonis had 10 points and 11 rebounds.
"We have so many weapons, coming off the bench and as starters,
they have to key on five guys," Wells said, "not two like the
other team."
Glen Rice and Brian Shaw scored 12 apiece for Los Angeles.
The Blazers clinched the victory by going 15-for-16 at the foul
line in the fourth quarter.
"They were playing desperate ball," O'Neal said. "But we knew
it was going to be hard to come up here and win three games."
O'Neal was 1-for-1 from the field and 2-for-2 at the line in the
fourth quarter. Bryant was 4-for-6 on 3-pointers in the fourth
quarter and 6-for-9 for the game.
The Blazers took an 83-68 lead on Wells' two free throws with
6:56 to go, but Los Angeles mounted one last challenge.
Brian Shaw hit a 3-pointer and O'Neal made two free throws,
after going 1-for-8 up until then, to cut it to 83-75 with 5:31 to
play.
Then coach Mike Dunleavy put Smith back into the game. Bryant
committed his fifth foul on Pippen's drive to the basket, and the
two free throws put Portland ahead 86-75, then Smith sank a
3-pointer from the corner to a deafening roar and the Blazers were
up 89-75 with 4:49 to go.
Bryant's 3-point barrage cut it to eight on several occasions,
but Portland responded with free throws to hold off any late
threat.
"The defining moment was late in the game when we kept making
pushes and they kept getting to the line and knocking down free
throws," Bryant said.
Even though Pippen was scoreless in the first half and didn't
take a shot until 34 seconds before the break, the Blazers led by
as many as 15 in the second quarter and were up 49-39 at the half.
Smith and Stoudamire had 12 points apiece.
O'Neal had eight tough-to-get points in the first half but was 0-for-6 at the foul line.
Portland, which has shot out to early leads in every game of the
series, used a 16-2 burst to take a 24-13 lead on Sabonis'
20-footer with 1:29 to play in the first quarter.
Game notes
One of the referees was Ron Garretson, who threw Wallace
out of Game 2. He gave Wallace the second technical for staring at
him. Although Garretson took a lot of heckling from the fans, there
were no exchanges between him and Wallace ... Among those in the
crowd: Tiger Woods, Bill Gates, Steven Speilberg and Clyde Drexler,
who got a huge ovation when shown on the giant video screen. ...
Sabonis, in foul trouble virtually throughout the series in his
matchup with O'Neal, didn't have a foul in 21 minutes on the court
in the first half. ... The last team to come back from a 3-1
deficit was Miami against New York in the 1997 Eastern Conference
semifinals. ... Fox and Dunleavy each drew a technical foul for a
heated exchange in the final minutes.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
LA Lakers Clubhouse
Portland Clubhouse
Frustrated Lakers will try again at home
RECAPS
Indiana 93
New York 80
Portland 103
LA Lakers 93
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Coach Mike Dunleavy felt the Blazers finally played with passion.
wav: 195 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Coach Phil Jackson thinks his team will be fine.
wav: 145 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Damon Stoudamire gives kudos to Arvydas Sabonis for his tough play.
wav: 144 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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