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Saturday, Jan. 22 8:30pm ET
Blazers' 17 road wins most in NBA | |||||
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 GAME FLOW
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Steve Smith has known Glen Rice a long time, so he had a pretty good idea what his old friend would do at crunch time Saturday night. So he took a gamble, and it paid off for the Portland Trail Blazers.
Smith blocked a potential game-tying shot by Rice with 30 seconds left, and scored four of his season-high 27 points after that as the Blazers rallied for a 95-91 win over the Los Angeles Lakers in a midseason showdown of the teams with the NBA's best records. The loss was the third in five games for the Lakers since their 16-game winning streak ended, but they reached the halfway point of the season with a 33-8 record -- best in the league. The Blazers (30-10) won by outscoring the Lakers 22-9 in the final 9:50. "I think we ran out of gas that second half, and I'm trying to figure out why, but for whatever reason, we just didn't finish the game very well," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "We did all the little things right tonight," Portland's Scottie Pippen said. The Blazers led 89-86 when Smith rejected Rice near the top of the key. Rasheed Wallace scooped up the loose ball and fed Smith for an uncontested dunk that gave Portland a five-point lead. "We grew up together (in Michigan), played against each other in college, were teammates in Miami (for the Heat), so I kind of know him," Smith said. "I thought he was going to step back and shoot the three. I just went for a gamble. "He plays well under pressure, he loves pressure. Knowing Glen, he's going for the dagger. If I'm not there, the shot's good." Rice grudgingly praised his longtime friend. "I was disappointed, but I really can't take anything away from him," he said of Smith. "He recovered very well and got a piece of the ball. We still had an opportunity at the end of the game to try and get something going, but it just didn't happen." Damon Stoudamire added 22 points and six assists; Wallace had 19 points, 12 rebounds and five assists, and Pippen had 15 points, six rebounds and seven assists for the Blazers. "It's just another game, nothing different about it," Wallace said. "It ain't playoff time, you can only get so hyped for it. The bottom line is just the "W," that's how I see it." Portland coach Mike Dunleavy agreed, saying, "The Lakers are a great team, obviously their record shows it, and we need to remember that this is one game, only one game." Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 28 points before fouling out with 14.1 seconds left. Shaquille O'Neal had 17 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists and six blocked shots, and Ron Harper scored 15. Rice made only 4-of-14 shots and was held to 12. Wallace scored five points to spark a 10-0 Portland run, giving the Blazers an 87-84 lead with two minutes remaining. Wallace's follow shot with 40.4 seconds to play made it 89-86, and Smith's layup after the big blocked shot made it a five-point game with 24.1 seconds left. After the Lakers scored, Smith made a pair of foul shots to give the Blazers a five-point lead again, but Robert Horry's 3-point shot with 18.1 seconds drew the Lakers within two. Brian Grant missed two free throws with 14.1 seconds to play, giving the Lakers a chance to tie or go ahead, but Derek Fisher put up a 3-pointer with about seven seconds to play that missed everything. Stoudamire's two free throws with 4.6 seconds left completed the scoring. "We pretty much handed them the game," Rice said. O'Neal praised the work of the Portland defense, saying, "We had trouble getting it inside. When we did get it inside, the double-team came so fast, I had to get rid of it. But our defense let us down on their last nine or 10 possessions." The Lakers outscored the Blazers 15-5 to finish the third quarter and start the fourth, giving them an 82-73 lead with a little over 10 minutes left. That's when Portland began its comeback. Game notesThe Blazers, who concluded a five-game road trip with a 3-2 record, have played an NBA-high 24 away games. Their 17 road wins are the most in the league. ... The Lakers (14-4) have the NBA's best winning percentage in road games, and are tied with Seattle (14-8) for the second-most road wins. ... The Lakers have an NBA-high 19 home wins. ... Before this game, the home team had emerged victorious in the previous 11 games between the Blazers and Lakers including two this season -- one at Staples Center, where a sellout crowd of 18,997 attended Saturday night's contest, and one at Portland. ... The Lakers are on a pace to win 66 games in the regular season. The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls have the best-ever record at 72-10. That team was coached by Phil Jackson, the first-year Lakers coach who guided the Bulls to six NBA championships in the 1990s. ... The Blazers entered the game with the stingiest defense in the league, allowing their opponents to average only 89.3 points. The Lakers give up the fifth-fewest points, 90.3. | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard Portland Clubhouse LA Lakers Clubhouse RECAPS New Jersey 98 Dallas 95
Portland 95
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