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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME FLOW
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – After dispatching Portland in three easy
games, Shaquille O'Neal says the selfish, bickering Los Angeles
Lakers of a month ago are long gone.
|  | | Kobe Bryant drives past Steve Smith on his way to 22 points and a playoff career-high nine assists for the Lakers. |
And the happy bunch that replaced them is primed to continue its
march toward a second straight NBA title.
"Everyone is on the same page now. We have a mission," O'Neal
said after the Lakers beat the Trail Blazers 99-86 Sunday to sweep
their first-round series.
"If we keep playing like this, it's going to be very hard to
beat us," said O'Neal, who led the Lakers with 25 points and 15
rebounds. "We know what it takes to win a championship, because of
the phenomenal season we had last year."
Los Angeles will play the Sacramento-Phoenix winner in the
second round.
Kobe Bryant had 22 points and a playoff career-high nine
assists, and Derek Fisher added 17 points and eight rebounds for
the Lakers, who began their surge by winning the last eight games
of the regular season.
Portland, meanwhile, lost for the sixth straight time and 17th
time in 25 games. The team with the highest payroll in NBA history
– $89.7 million – faces an offseason of uncertainty. Coach Mike
Dunleavy could be fired, some players could be traded, and even
general manager Bob Whitsitt's job isn't safe.
"I felt like we had too many challenges, too many obstacles to
overcome," said Scottie Pippen, whose goal of a seventh title was
thwarted by jealousies, the departure of Shawn Kemp for drug
rehabilitation and a season-ending injury to Bonzi Wells.
"This is the worst – the worst thing I have ever had to deal
with throughout my career," Pippen added. "It just wasn't a fun
season for us. The outcome of it was just a testament to what we
had been dealing with all season."
Damon Stoudamire and Steve Smith each scored 25 points to lead
the Blazers, and Rasheed Wallace had 13 rebounds but was a major
disappointment on offense, missing 15 of 19 shots and scoring nine
points.
The Lakers say they are better than last year's team, which blew
a 3-1 series lead against the Blazers in the conference finals and
had to overcome a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit to win Game 7.
"Our confidence is at an all-time high, and we caught a team
that is not all the way together," Fisher said.
The teams split the season series 2-2, but Los Angeles utterly
dominated the Blazers in the playoffs, outscoring them by 44 points
and outrebounding them by 33.
"This series showed how far we've come, how much we've
matured," Bryant said. "Last year we didn't have the know-how,
but this year we have the experience. And in this series, at the
end, we took the life out of them."
The Lakers beat the Blazers the same way they did the first two
games – by getting the ball to O'Neal, although he didn't see it
much early on. O'Neal had just two shots in the first quarter – five fewer than Bryant – and three rebounds.
O'Neal resumed his dominance in the second half, however, and
the Blazers – without suspended Dale Davis and Stacey Augmon – couldn't handle him.
A hook shot by Arvydas Sabonis a minute into the fourth quarter
got Portland within 79-74, but O'Neal made two straight hooks to
push the lead to nine. The Blazers missed six of their first seven
shots and started to hear boos from the Rose Garden crowd.
Fisher's 3-pointer made it 87-74 with 9:01 left. O'Neal, who in
his recent biography said he "owns" the 7-foot-3 Sabonis,
provided the icing with a dunk that bounced off Sabonis' head.
"Sabonis did a nice job on Shaq in the first half," Lakers
coach Phil Jackson said. "(Shaq) got loose a little bit and, at
some period, he hit his free throws (7-of-10), which is important
for us, too."
Portland got within 67-66 on an open 3-pointer by Smith, but
Fisher hit a 3-pointer, and the Lakers took a seven-point lead into
the fourth quarter.
"In the fourth, once we got our lead, there was no turning
back," O'Neal said.
The Blazers led early, and Stoudamire scored eight points in the
first 4½ minutes of the second quarter to boost the Blazers' lead
to six, but the Lakers started getting O'Neal the ball.
His first strong move came when he got the ball deep against
Sabonis, spun away from Wallace's double-team and emphatically
dunked over Sabonis.
Bryant hit three straight shots to ignite a 9-0 run, and two
free throws by Fisher just before halftime gave the Lakers a 54-47
lead.
Game notes
Davis was suspended for throwing an elbow at the Lakers'
Robert Horry in Game 2, and Augmon was punished for coming off the
bench during the altercation. ... O'Neal made 21 of 34 free throws
in the series for 62 percent, compared with 51 percent during the
regular season. ... Fisher had zero turnovers in 114 minutes in the
series. ... Portland has been eliminated by the Lakers four of the
last five years.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
LA Lakers Clubhouse
Portland Clubhouse
Trail Blazers-Lakers Series Page
Blazers' fan ejected for her 'Trade Whitsitt' sign
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Kobe Bryant says the Lakers have grown as a team.
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Mike Dunleavy says the Blazers couldn't get it done down the stretch.
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Scottie Pippen doesn't know what to say about being swept by the Lakers.
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