LAKERS INSIDE LOOK: CHANGES DON'T PLEASE PORTLAND LAKERS ADJUST TO BLAZERS' NEW TACTICS IN GAME 2.

Byline: Vincent Bonsignore Staff Writer

By the end of the first quarter Thursday, Rick Fox and Samaki Walker had both scored more points in the Lakers' 103-96 Game 2 opening-round victory over Portland than they did in all of Game 1.

It was one of those little reminders that for every action, there is a reaction. When Portland decided to muscle around Kobe Bryant more in Game 2 than in Game 1, in addition to shadowing Shaquille O'Neal again with two defenders and using a fullcourt press, the Lakers made the necessary countermoves to compensate adequately.

As a result, they'll head to Portland Sunday with a chance to wrap up the best-of-five series in a tidy three-game sweep.

The Lakers expect more new Portland wrinkles when the series shifts up north, but as they showed Thursday, they've successfully come up with answers to offset whatever the Trail Blazers throw at them.

``You go in and watch films and see what they're doing and then you make the adjustments,'' Lakers guard Derek Fisher said. ``We did that tonight and now we have control of the series.''

The two most obvious Portland changes were the fullcourt pressure and physical attention on Bryant, who struggled on a 5-of-21 shooting night to finish with a quiet 19 points.

Bryant sensed Portland's approach early on, then countered by looking to role players like Fox, Walker and Fisher. Fox, in particular, took advantage, hitting all three of his shots in the first quarter, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer off an assist from Bryant, to help the Lakers open a 27-18 lead.

Walker, who went scoreless and had just four rebounds in a foul-plagued Game 1, avoided fouls and stayed on the court, grabbing eight rebounds to jump-start the Lakers' fast break.

It was just the kind of beginning the Lakers needed from their supporting cast, especially with Bryant struggling with his outside shot and O'Neal continually fighting off foot problems.

``We knew they were going to play a little more physical with Kobe and pressure us, so it was up to the rest of the guys to pick it up and help offset that,'' said Walker, who finished with five points and nine rebounds. ``We did our job tonight.''

Fox finished with 13 points, Fisher had 18 and Robert Horry and Devean George both finished with seven.

``The rest of us are just going about our business, playing as smart as we can and with as much intensity as possible,'' Fox said.

The Trail Blazers hounded the Lakers all over the court, using a variety of fullcourt and halfcourt presses to try to disrupt L.A.'s offensive flow, another slight change from Game 1.

Portland's thinking was the Lakers lacked sufficient ballhandlers to deal with the added pressure. Besides Fisher, no one on the Lakers is known for his dribbling ability.

It worked to some extent - the Lakers turned the ball over 14 times - but it also helped open up their running game. L.A. had 51 points by the end of the first half, good enough for a 14-point lead, then raced to a 21-point lead late in the fourth.

The Lakers countermove to the pressure was to involve forwards Horry and Fox in handling the ball.

``When teams are fronting our guards like they were, our forwards come up and we feel like we have forwards very capable of handling the ball,'' Fisher said. ``We had 14 turnovers for the game, but we average 12 on the year, so that's really not so bad.''

Of course, through it all, O'Neal was his dominating self, finishing with 31 points and 14 rebounds. In looking ahead to Sunday, expect the Blazers to try to limit the chances he gets the ball in the paint. Also expect the Lakers to have some answers.

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2002 NBA PLAYOFFS