STILL SLUMPING LAKERS CAN'T HOLD ON AGAINST TOUGH BLAZERS LEFT UP TO BENCH, LAST SHOT HITS ONLY AIR PORTLAND 95, LAKERS 91.

Byline: Howard Beck Staff Writer

For a while Saturday, as the Lakers triangulated the offense to near perfection, as Kobe Bryant swished jump shot after jump shot, as the sellout crowd roared with glee, one caught a glimmer of a championship- caliber team, living up to its gaudy record.

Then a blur of black-shirted bodies and red headbands smashed the image to bits.

In a game that marked the halfway point of the season, in a matchup of the NBA's two winningest teams, the Lakers displayed uncanny precision just long enough to make their recent struggles a memory.

But they couldn't finish the task, and the Portland Trail Blazers hustled and muscled their way to a 95-91, come-from-behind victory at Staples Center.

The Lakers still own the league's best record (33-8) and a 2 1/2-game edge over the Blazers (30-10) in the Pacific Division, but Portland left the building with the mental edge and a 2-1 series lead.

``I think we ran out of gas in that second half. I'm trying to figure out why,'' Lakers coach Phil Jackson said.

There were no obvious answers, just a flurry of missed opportunities and slow-footed moves toward the ball. The Blazers held the Lakers to a season-low 13 points in the fourth quarter to overcome a seven-point deficit.

And when the game came down to a handful of possessions in the final minute, the Lakers' two best weapons were on the bench - Bryant because he fouled out (with 28 points), Shaquille O'Neal because he's a liability at the free-throw line. And he wasn't having a particularly effective game, settling for 17 points on 8-of-17 shooting.

That left Robert Horry to make an almost game-saving 3-pointer and Derek Fisher to shoot the potential game-winning shot - a rushed 3-point attempt that drew only air.

It shouldn't have come down to heroics from the bench, though. The Lakers simply got outworked in the fourth - they were outrebounded 17-5 - and Rasheed Wallace seemed to pull in every loose ball as he scored seven of his 19 points in the quarter.

``We just kind of let it all slip away there, the last nine, 10 possessions,'' O'Neal said. ``We just have to sustain our defense for 48 minutes.''

O'Neal finished with 16 rebounds, seven assists and six blocked shots, but the Blazers kept him far from the paint most of the game. And he grabbed just two rebounds in the second half.

Fatigued after 47 minutes? O'Neal shook his head. An explanation for the lack of rebounding? He shook his head again. Blazers forward Brian Grant, one of an army of defenders on O'Neal, chose the obvious explanation.

``You have to remember that Shaq's playing almost 40 minutes a night,'' Grant said, ``so we just kept coming at him with different waves of people, and I think it really wore him down.''

Then O'Neal wasn't on the floor at all. Jackson pulled him with 13.6 seconds to go, subbing in Rick Fox to prevent intentional fouling.

Bryant was missing too. After Horry's 3-pointer (on a pass from O'Neal) pulled the Lakers within two points to 93-91, Bryant picked up his sixth foul when he intentionally fouled Grant on the inbounds play with 14.1 seconds to go.

Grant missed both foul shots, and the Lakers had one final chance. Horry took the inbounds pass from Ron Harper, then swung the ball to Fisher. His 3-point try fell short, and Glen Rice slapped the ball out of bounds trying to gather it.

``We were pretty much looking to get the ball to Glen,'' Fisher said. ``The play got broken up a little bit, and Robert ended up swinging the ball to me. You look back on it and you wish you could have that one back, explore some other options. But you're out there in the heat of the moment you just go with what you feel. . . . If I had taken my time a little bit, I probably would have made a more efficient decision.''

Instead, the Lakers, who appeared to snap out of their funk as they built a 10-point halftime lead, go back to pondering what went wrong as they lost for the third time in five games.

``We've been concerned for the past week or so,'' Fisher said. ``Right now we aren't able to go out and carry over the things that we work on in practice that can be successful for us.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- color) Portland's Steve Smith swoops in to block Glen Rice's shot attempt in the fourth quarter Saturday.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

(2) Kobe Bryant, who had 28 points before fouling out, is surrounded by Scottie Pippen, center, and Brian Grant.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

Box:

(1) INSIDE/Columnist Karen Crouse believes Shaquille O'Neal should have been on the floor at the end. Page 7

(2) GAME RECAP