BLAZERS LURKING PORTLAND MOTIVATED, CONFIDENT VS. LAKERS DESPITE ERRATIC SEASON.

Byline: Rich Hammond Staff Writer

By now, it's hard to remember that the Portland Trail Blazers were once among the few teams considered to have a chance to win the NBA title. Many preseason pundits even ranked them ahead of the defending champion Lakers.

That was almost six months ago, before the Trail Blazers began the slide that dropped them to seventh in the Western Conference and before the Lakers made a late-season charge up to the No. 2 spot.

So naturally, as the teams prepare to begin their first-round playoff series on Sunday, the edge goes to ... Portland?

``They finished seventh, but they were probably what, eighth or ninth in the league?'' Lakers coach Phil Jackson said of the Trail Blazers, who tied for the ninth-best record in the league.

``They're shooting a better percentage than we are from the field, their defense (field-goal percentage against) is a better defense, the point differential against same opponents is better, their free throw, field goal and 3-point percentages are all better than ours.

``There's almost an intangible.''

It's part of a coach's job to keep his team focused against an underdog, which is why Jackson fails to mention that the Trail Blazers ended the regular season playing arguably the worst basketball of any playoff team.

Portland lost 17 of its last 32 games after it resided in first place in the Western Conference at the All-Star break with a 35-15 record. The Trail Blazers even made a late charge to match the Lakers for the unofficial award for least team stability.

A year after they took the Lakers to the brink of elimination in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals, the Blazers and their $90 million roster all but imploded because of injuries (Greg Anthony, Shawn Kemp and Scottie Pippen) and personality conflicts caused by the midseason signing of Rod Strickland and the general weirdness of Rasheed Wallace.

Still, the Trail Blazers believe that even without homecourt advantage, they could return to the conference finals, or beyond, and erase the sting of a disappointing regular season.

``That's over now,'' guard Steve Smith said. ``If we had 20 games left, we could change that, but right now we have to say that it didn't go as well as we wanted it to go. We wanted to win the Pacific Division and we didn't, but that doesn't mean we can't win the championship.

``It's not like we had an awful year. At the All-Star break we were right up there in the West. We just had some problems in our last 20 games, but if we can get back to the same level we were at right before the All-Star break, we'll be a tough team to beat.''

That's a rather large ``if,'' especially considering that Portland ended its regular season with three consecutive losses, including the last game against San Antonio, which Wallace missed after he was suspended for throwing a towel in the face of teammate Arvydas Sabonis.

At any point in the first round, Wallace could blow a fuse and leave Sabonis and Dale Davis as the only big men to defend Shaquille O'Neal, which would mean almost certain defeat for Portland.

But the teams split their four games this season, and the 15-point lead that the Trail Blazers held in the fourth quarter of Game 7 last year has not been forgotten.

``I don't know if I'd say we have a mental edge,'' said Davis, who played for Indiana last season, ``but when you face a team and you've had some success against them in the past, that has to be in the back of their mind.

``Everybody saw the opportunity (Portland) had. They definitely had them on the ropes, but they didn't quite pull it off. So this team definitely knows that we are capable of doing it because they took (the Lakers) all the way last time. It's just a matter of digging down deep.''

All those factors seem to suggest that the Lakers-Trail Blazers series could be the least-predictable of the first-round matchups.

``There is some enmity that naturally grows when you have a playoff series,'' Jackson said. ``I find them playing better against us a lot of times than I think they've played against other teams.

``I think it piques their interest and I think they'll play very well.''

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NBA PLAYOFFS: FIRST ROUND