Is win at Portland the season-changer Lakers were looking for?

February 24, 2011, 12:33 am

By Billy Witz
FOXSports.com
WITZ ARCHIVE

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Kobe Bryant was angry, Pau Gasol was frustrated and it looked like another one of those nights in Portland, where the Lakers are beaten as regularly as it rains.

Then, trailing by seven points with less than two minutes to play in regulation and again by two with little more than a minute left in overtime, the Lakers found the resolve that so often eludes them until April, May and June.

And seemingly out of nowhere, they walked out of the Rose Garden with a 106-101 victory that was well worth savoring.

"It’s a win that we needed," said Kobe Bryant, who scored 28 of his 37 points after halftime. "This was truly a playoff type of test because of the crowd, how things weren’t going our way, being down seven with, like, three minutes to go and just staying at it."

Bryant even went as far as to suggest it was the Lakers’ most gratifying victory of the season, perhaps forgetting that little win in Boston two weeks ago.

Bryant and Gasol, whose three-point play with 1:16 left in overtime gave the Lakers the lead for good, were the stars down the stretch.

But the unsung hero was Ron Artest, who scored a season-high 24 points, including 5 of 6 three-pointers -- one short of his career high.

"There are games where I’m not going to have that many opportunities," Artest said. "But tonight the opportunities came. Some nights I don’t have to do it, but tonight, the way the game was, they were just leaving me open, disrespecting me."

Artest’s penultimate three-pointer, with 1:29 left in regulation, launched the Lakers’ comeback, pulling them within 87-83. Bryant then got them even, hitting a 10-footer with 46.9 seconds left and another, from 15 feet, with 4.7 seconds left.

Portland had a chance to win it, but LaMarcus Aldridge’s driving layup was short.

For three quarters, Aldridge had dominated the Lakers. He scored 29 points on 12 of 15 shooting and added 11 rebounds and four steals. But he did not score in either the fourth period or overtime, and missed three shots near the basket in the final minute of regulation. In overtime, he missed two free throws with the Blazers behind 100-97 with 19.4 seconds left.

"I had the ball in my hand a lot to close the game out," Aldridge said. "I missed the layup and then those two big free throws in the overtime. That was big for me. I can’t do that no more."

It was the same story for the rest of the Blazers, who were sparked early on by the return of Brandon Roy from knee surgery.

After Nicolas Batum’s dunk off an alley-oop pass from Andre Miller put the Blazers ahead 87-80 with 4:11 left, they did not score again in regulation, missing seven shots down the stretch.

And thus the Lakers’ trip here was not so inhospitable. Last season, they snapped a nine-game losing streak in Portland and have now won just four of their last 19 games here. Of those, two were in overtime and the others by three points.

So, if the Lakers walked out of the building feeling better than they had a right to, maybe it’s hard to blame them.

"It’s meaningful when you lose in a place nine times in a row and you’re able to win a couple times in a row, it’s meaningful," Gasol said. "It adds value to it."

Statistical Information provided by: STATS LLC and Associated Press.
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