Blazers down an L.A. Lite.

Byline: Ron Bellamy / The Register-Guard

PORTLAND - ONCE UPON a time, the scene might have been a dream come true for fans of the Trail Blazers.

Because the Blazers are playing the mighty Los Angeles Lakers in the Rose Garden, and the crowd is roaring, and for a few minutes, in a pivotal stretch, massive center Arvydas Sabonis in the best thing in the paint.

Unstoppable, in fact.

He scores once. He hits a rolling hook shot to score again. He tips in a miss for yet another basket, and he's been the big part of a run in which the Blazers come from behind and take a lead they'll never relinquish.

But there the dream ends, in a cold splash of reality.

Because it isn't June, in the Western Conference finals, but the end of October, in the the Blazers' season opener. And it isn't the fourth quarter, in a game that means a lot, but the second quarter, in a game that really doesn't mean much at all.

And those aren't the true Lakers, the real three-time NBA champions, but L.A. Lite - without center Shaquille O'Neal, the old Sabonis nemesis, recovering from foot surgery; without forward Rick Fox, serving a suspension; and, as the Blazers rallied from a first-quarter deficit, without guard Kobe Bryant, out momentarily after rolling his ankle.

Final score: Trail Blazers 102, Lakers 90, Wednesday night, before 20,225 in the Rose Garden, and a national television audience on ESPN.

And if you came looking for answers about the Blazers, the only real answer here was to this question: Is there any doubt about the impact of Shaq, or his stature as the most valuable player in the game?

The Lakers have started the season 0-2, for the first time since 1990-91, and the hole, however temporary, figures to get deeper before O'Neal returns sometime in November. He's that important to a team that, even with Bryant, is very beatable without him.

Still, on Wednesday night Trail Blazer fans could draw encouragement from the play of Sabonis, back after a year out of the sport, and of Scottie Pippen.

Respectively, they are the best player in the history of European basketball, and one of the 50 all-time best players in the NBA, and they came off the bench in the second quarter, having not played all preseason because of injuries, and made a difference.

Encouraging, yes, but ...

The Trail Blazers are aptly described as the NBA's most explosive chemistry experiment. They have also been, in recent seasons, almost symbolic of a dysfunctional, over-paid professional team, with problems on the court and off the court and a spoiled-athlete image that has soured many in a community that once loved - truly and passionately loved - this franchise.

There have been some signs that the Blazers are starting to get it, a little bit, anyway. There is an advertising campaign to improve their image. There are suggestions that Pippen, a superstar in the last year of his contract and battling an aging body, will accept being a reserve for the first time in his career. There are claims that the crowd of players at the point will share the ball with teammates and happily share playing time with each other.

Good grief, volatile forward Rasheed Wallace, who has led the NBA in technical fouls for three straight years - and immaturely taken his team out of some games in the process - has even talked about not getting into things with the refs as much.

Wallace also granted a rare interview this fall, with Geoffrey C. Arnold of The Oregonian, and if Wallace wouldn't admit to an anger-management problem, neither did he ignite Arnold for raising the question.

Hopeful signs? When Wallace drew his third foul in the first half Wednesday night, he went to the bench with a smile instead of a tirade. And there was a sequence when point guard Damon Stoudamire came up with a steal and got the ball to Pippen in the front court, whereupon Pippen in turn gave up the ball to Wallace, who drained a three on a night he led all scorers with 28 points, in 32 minutes.

A nice sequence indeed, but it's early.

For now, the Trail Blazers still sound like one of those unanswerable word problems that a grade school kid might face on a math test, something like:

Paul had $104.572 million to spend on a basketball team. With it, he bought 11 players who have started in the NBA, seven former lottery picks, three former all-stars, a former rookie of the year and the owner of six NBA championship rings. What did he get?

Good question. What, indeed, has owner Paul Allen purchased with the biggest payroll in NBA history? To some degree, he's bought himself a work in progress, while the new pieces - guards Jeff McInnis and Antonio Daniels - and the old pieces are being fit together, and while trade rumors still swirl.

Remember that the Trail Blazers really struggled last year until January, under first-year coach Maurice Cheeks, and then went on a strong stretch run (28-13) only to be swept in three games by the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs, their season ending in April.

At some point in April or thereafter, the Blazers figure to be faced with getting through the Lakers again, as will any other Western Conference hopeful, and their season will be judged on whether they can.

But then they'll face the real Lakers, not L.A. Lite.