LAKERS, BLAZERS REPLAY LEAP DAY.

Byline: Howard Beck Staff Writer

PORTLAND, Ore. - Eighty-seven days and thirty-seven games and a half-dozen fascinating plot twists later, the NBA's most-enduring story line of the season returns to where it all began.

Back to the Rose Garden. Back to the scene of what Lakers coach Phil Jackson called the biggest regular-season event ``in my history of the game, in 33 years.''

Hyperbole like that is difficult to top. Tonight's Rose reunion between the Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers won't need the extra hype. It lacks some of the drama of the Feb. 29 showdown between these teams and yet is infinitely more important.

The Western Conference finals are tied 1-1, and the Lakers have lost what they gained here nearly three months ago: home-court advantage in the playoffs.

The Lakers' 90-87, Leap Day victory broke a tie atop the NBA standings and propelled them to the league's best record. To regain home-court advantage and the mental edge in this series, the Lakers must win tonight or Sunday.

And their greatest ally is that Feb. 29 game, which qualified as a must-win at the time.

``Anytime you can look back and remember a positive experience, it can give you confidence,'' said Derek Fisher. ``And even though it was forever ago, I think we can kind of draw from that and remember: that in a hostile environment, in a close basketball game, against this same basketball team, we went up there and got a win.''

As Jackson made clear at the time, it would be no ordinary victory.

The Lakers and Blazers were tied atop the NBA with matching 45-11 records, and each team was riding an 11-game winning streak. They had chased each other around the Pacific Division for four months, neither able to establish absolute supremacy.

Jackson presciently opined that the winner would eventually claim the division, and probably much more. He was, we know now, absolutely right.

Starting with that victory, the Lakers went 22-4 to finish out the season. The Blazers went 14-12, unable to reestablish their dominance until the playoffs began.

``We just felt really comfortable with what our game plan was,'' Jackson said of the Feb. 29 showdown, ``how we played the game, knowing what we wanted to do and operating in the style of game we wanted to play at.''

So they're back now where they began, literally and figuratively.

``It's not like we have to prove anything to ourselves, because we've done it before,'' Kobe Bryant said. ``We went up there in a tight situation and beat them up there on their home floor, so we know that we can do it. It's just a matter of doing it.''

Yet the Lakers have not shown the road-warrior mentality that carried them before. After posting a 31-10 road record in the regular season, they have slipped to 1-3 in the playoffs. They failed to win two potential close-out games at Sacramento and another at Phoenix.

``Well we won (Game 3) up in Phoenix in a great manner, and then we kind of laid back (in Game 4),'' John Salley said. ``This is the third round. Nothing before this really matters.''

Still, the Lakers need to regain the edge that pushed them through those 4-0 and 6-0 road trips during the regular season. And, as on Feb. 29, they once again are faced with proving their superiority over the Blazers.

``I think it was a situation where we wanted that game really bad,'' Fisher recalled. ``I think we accepted the challenge that was placed on us, not only by them, but by other people. I think at that time of the season, a lot of people felt like they were a better basketball team than us. And I think we really felt like if we could go up there and get a win, it would not only silence other people, but it would give us more confidence. And we continued to just play tremendous basketball after that.

``So we're kind of in that same siuation again, where people are starting to question our abilities as a basketball team. And we can go up there and silence those people.''

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Box: Western Finals