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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME FLOW
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Portland Trail Blazers started like
winners, and finished like losers.
|  | | Kobe Bryant, right, and Steve Smith battle for a rebound on Thursday. Bryant had 25 points for the Lakers. |
Shaquille O'Neal had 32 points, 12 rebounds and five assists
Thursday night as the Los Angeles Lakers rolled to a 106-88 victory
over the Blazers, giving them a 2-0 lead in the first-round playoff
series.
"Our main problem is Shaq," Portland's Damon Stoudamire said.
"Right now, he's a man among boys."
The Blazers came out fast, making 13 of their first 16 shots --
many from long range -- but in the end, it didn't mean a thing.
It got ugly in the fourth quarter, when two Portland players
were ejected, including Rasheed Wallace, the NBA's technical foul
king, and the Blazers were hit with five technicals.
"They tried to get us out of our game a couple times with a
couple of cheap shots," O'Neal said. "I think the league should
have done something about this kind of play a long time ago."
Kobe Bryant added 25 points and seven assists, and Rick Fox had
19 points, eight rebounds, six assists and five steals for the
Lakers.
Game 3 in the best-of-five series will be played Sunday in
Portland, where a fourth game is scheduled Tuesday night, if
needed.
Only five NBA teams have rallied to win a best-of-five series
after losing the first two games, four since the NBA instituted the
current format in 1984.
The Lakers haven't lost as many as three in a row since coach
Phil Jackson took over before last season. That's a span of 189
games, including the playoffs.
"We haven't done anything yet," Jackson said. "We have Sunday
and Tuesday opportunities up there in Portland to close this thing
off, and we'd like to do that."
With the Lakers leading 84-72 and 8:46 to play, Portland's Dale
Davis was called for a flagrant foul and ejected for elbowing
Robert Horry.
The Lakers scored the next five points, and the Blazers didn't
threaten after that.
"Just frustration, that's all," Horry said of Davis. "He got
upset because we kind of hit each other when he was going to the
basket. I still think he's a great guy. It was just one of those
things."
The game got so out of hand that when Stoudamire was hit with a
technical foul with 5:46 left, O'Neal was given the opportunity to
shoot it, and he made it to the cheers of the Staples Center crowd
of 18,997, putting the Lakers ahead 92-75.
"I asked to shoot it," O'Neal said. "I wasn't shooting at the
line the way I'm supposed to. I'm not sending any messages."
A little over a minute later, Scottie Pippen picked up a
technical foul and Wallace, who set an NBA record with 41 this
season, was assessed two, calling for automatic ejection.
Pippen led the Blazers with 21 points, eight rebounds and four
steals. Wallace added 17 points and Steve Smith scored 16.
"Defensively, there isn't much we can change, we just have to
play better," Pippen said. "Now is not the time to be concerned.
We need to win a ballgame and try to get some confidence within
ourselves."
O'Neal scored five points and assisted on a layup by Fox in the
opening three minutes of the third quarter to give the Lakers a
62-49 lead.
Wallace picked up his fourth foul with 5:05 remaining in the
third period and Los Angeles leading 71-59, and sat out the rest of
the quarter, which ended with the Lakers ahead 80-65.
The Blazers' quick start resulted in a 29-21 lead. Then, they
turned stone cold, hitting just two of their next 16 shots and
being outscored 29-13 to fall behind 50-42 with 45 seconds left
before halftime.
"Their defense obviously had something to do with that," a
worn-looking Portland coach Mike Dunleavy said.
Brian Shaw's 3-pointer with less than a second left in the half
gave the Lakers a 55-46 lead -- largest for either team to that
point.
"There's no mystery to the game," Dunleavy said. "They
controlled the glass, and got themselves into the open court. They
beat us basically to every loose ball tonight, we were just too
careless with the ball."
The Lakers outrebounded the Blazers 48-32.
About the fourth quarter, Dunleavy said: "It's a physical game
in there, I'm sure there was a lot of frustration."
Pippen, who had 13 points in the Lakers' 106-93 win in Game 1
and later complained about being a minute part of the Blazers'
offense, came out firing, scoring nine points in the first seven
minutes and 15 in the first half.
Game notes
The Lakers extended their winning streak to 10 games
including the last eight of the regular season, while the Blazers
are going in the other direction, having lost nine of their last
12. ... The game was the 200th in the playoffs for Pippen in his
14-year career -- second-most in NBA history behind former Lakers
star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who played in 237. ... O'Neal was named a
repeat winner of the IBM Award on Thursday. The award is determined
by a computerized rating that measures a player's overall
contribution to his team. ... The Lakers' first-round playoff
record after winning the first game is 26-1. ... Smith and O'Neal
had a brief skirmish with 11:01 remaining and were assessed double
technicals. No punches were thrown. The Davis-Horry episode took
place less than 2 1/2 minutes later.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
Portland Clubhouse
LA Lakers Clubhouse
Trail Blazers-Lakers Series Page
Patrick: Shame on the Fail-Blazers
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Phil Jackson was impressed with the determination of his team on Thursday.
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Mike Dunleavy thinks the Blazers should be worried with their poor start against the Lakers.
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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