How They Fared

The Lakers and Portland split their four regular-season games, each winning their home games:

GAME 1 LAKERS 98, PORTLAND 87

Oct. 30 at Staples Center

On the night of Michael Jordan’s return to the NBA, the Lakers hung a championship banner, took their rings and beat the Trail Blazers, behind 29 points each by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. O’Neal also had 18 rebounds. The Lakers had 25 fastbreak points; Portland shot 42.5% from the field. Rasheed Wallace scored 22 points on 21 attempts and Scottie Pippen, beginning a difficult season against the Lakers, scored two points. “I don’t want to say anything came easy,” Bryant said, “but we might have surprised ourselves with the way we held them down defensively.”

GAME 2 PORTLAND 111, LAKERS 105

Feb. 17 at the Rose Garden

Ruben Patterson made nine of 11 field-goal attempts, scored 22 points and had eight rebounds in 27 minutes, and then called Bryant “very arrogant” in his postgame analysis. Though the Lakers played without O’Neal, on the injured list because of his arthritic toe, the score was tied, 89-89, with 6:41 left. The Trail Blazers rode Bonzi Wells (27 points), Wallace (25 points) and Patterson to the end, while Samaki Walker left because of a hyper-extended elbow. Bryant scored 28 points, but needed 26 shots to get them.

GAME 3 LAKERS 91, PORTLAND 79

March 29 at Staples Center

O’Neal had 34 points and 18 rebounds and Bryant had 34 points and seven rebounds, and the Lakers pulled away in the fourth quarter. Walker took 17 rebounds, continuing his late-season push on the boards. Wallace, who had a lower back strain, did not play. Still, the Trail Blazers were within 73-71 before going to pieces, missing 28 of their last 36 shots. The game was memorable for O’Neal’s hard tumble over the first row of seats, landing hard on his left side and cutting his thumb. He stood up, brushed popcorn off his uniform, and outscored the Trail Blazers, 12-11, in the final quarter.

GAME 4 PORTLAND 128, LAKERS 120 (2 OT)

April 14 at the Rose Garden

Wells scored 33 points and Patterson had 17 points, 10 rebounds and three steals in the wildest game of the year. The Trail Blazers came back from deficits of 10 points in the fourth quarter and eight points in the first overtime, they hoped setting a tone for a best-of-five series that would begin in a week. O’Neal scored 36 points but missed four of six field-goal attempts in the two overtimes. Bryant did not score after regulation. “We gave it away twice,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said in a terse postgame interview.