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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME FLOW
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Portland Trail Blazers might go quickly
in their first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers.
They won't go quietly.
|  | | Rasheed Wallace, right, is led by coach Mike Dunleavy to the locker room after a spat with a ref just before halftime; he was not ejected. |
After the Lakers went on a 19-0 run at the end of the third
quarter and start of the fourth to win the series opener 106-93
Sunday, the Blazers complained about how Shaquille O'Neal played
and how the officials reacted.
"I don't know what to tell our guys about Shaq," Portland
coach Mike Dunleavy said. "He hits you every time, he sits in the
lane for five or six seconds.
"The problem is when he's getting some deep catches after being
in the lane so long – it's hard to stop him."
Portland's Scottie Pippen said nobody will beat the Lakers if
O'Neal is allowed to push the Blazers around.
"It was just ridiculous, the way they called the game," Pippen
said. "And then they called tap fouls. Maybe they want the game to
turn out this way. If they're going to let him lead with his
elbows, throw guys out of the way, then we're going to have to
change the way we play."
Pippen also said: "Our defense is geared to stop Shaq. The
other guys are stepping up for them, that's the key."
O'Neal, who had 24 points and 20 rebounds but made only 33
percent of his field goal attempts, reacted angrily when informed
of Dunleavy's remarks, saying, "Tell Dunleavy to get someone to
play me; all they do is cry."
O'Neal said he felt he had an off-game.
"I don't usually shoot 7-for-21, that's a disgrace," he said.
"They're playing sort of a zone defense and packing it in."
O'Neal's 57.2 percent field goal percentage led the NBA.
Kobe Bryant scored 25 of his 28 points in the second half
including 15 in the fourth quarter as the Lakers successfully
opened defense of their championship.
Game 2 in the best-of-five series is Thursday night in Los
Angeles.
"We certainly didn't expect to finish like that in a close game
that was nip-and-tuck for three quarters," Lakers coach Phil
Jackson said."
The Blazers led 72-70 before O'Neal scored the last four points
of the third quarter.
The Lakers then scored the first 15 points of the final period,
beginning with 3-pointers by Rick Fox and Brian Shaw, for an 89-72
lead with 8:27 to play.
The Blazers went quietly after that.
Only a week earlier, the Blazers led the Lakers by one point
before Los Angeles scored the game's final six points to win
105-100 in the next-to-last game of the regular season.
Fox said Jackson called him over at the start of the fourth
period and said, "You're not giving us anything."
"I couldn't argue," Fox said. He responded, though, making a
3-pointer and getting a steal he turned into a layup after Shaw's
3-pointer.
"Defense got it going," Bryant said of the big run. "They're
not going to self-destruct. They've got a guy over there (Pippen)
who's won six championships. He's not going to go down easily."
This series is a rematch of last year's Western Conference
finals, which the Lakers won by rallying from a 15-point deficit
with 10½ minutes remaining in Game 7 for an 89-84 victory.
Derek Fisher added a career playoff-high 21 points, and Horace
Grant had 14 points and eight rebounds for the Lakers.
Rasheed Wallace led the Blazers with 24 points and seven
rebounds. Damon Stoudamire scored 18 points, and Pippen added 13.
Wallace, who picked up an NBA-record 41 technical fouls this
season, angrily threw the ball high into the air as the half ended,
and then jawed with one of the officials as the teams were leaving
the floor.
He was assessed a technical, and Bryant missed the resulting
foul shot at the beginning of the third quarter.
"I don't want to talk about it because I don't want to get
fined," Wallace said when asked what happened.
Otherwise, he would only say, "They came out with a good game,
that's the bottom line."
Game notes
Grant said before the game his sore left knee was only
"70-75 percent." Nevertheless, he surpassed his 8.5-point scoring
average in the game's first eight minutes. ... While the Lakers
finished the regular season with eight straight victories to win
the Pacific Division title and move up to the No. 2 seed in the
West, the Blazers won only three of their last 10 to drop to
seventh. ... Bryant sustained a bruised rib late in the first
quarter in a collision with Wallace, and was treated in the Lakers'
locker room before returning four minutes into the second period.
... O'Neal scored 31 or more points in the last 11 regular-season
games, and grabbed 10 or more rebounds in the final 17. ... The
Lakers led 51-48 at halftime despite unproductive performances from
O'Neal, who went 3-of-12 from the field in scoring 10 points, and
Bryant, who was 0-for-7 in scoring three.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
Portland Clubhouse
LA Lakers Clubhouse
RECAPS
New York 92
Toronto 85
Phoenix 86
Sacramento 83
LA Lakers 106
Portland 93
Milwaukee 103
Orlando 90
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Coach Phil Jackson felt the Lakers were fortunate to come out with a win.
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Blazers coach Mike Dunleavy is out of answers when it comes to playing against Shaquille O'Neal.
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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