After pulling the chair on Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant on defense, leading to an off-balanced miss, and after draining a three-pointer in front of the hated rival’s bench, Portland Trail Blazers guard Martell Webster corralled his tipped three-point attempt, knifed into the lane, maneuvered around center Andrew Bynum and forward Lamar Odom, evaded Ron Artest, and lunged through all three at the rim to scoop in a acrobatic layup late in the third quarter. The Rose Garden rose to their feet, celebrating another dazzling play by their Blazers.

Portland was red-hot out of the gate, taking it to Los Angeles early and often. Four of the five starters scored in the first five minutes, fueling a 14-6 start to the exhilarating contest. When the Lakers came back to within two, a bench player entered the mix. Jerryd Bayless showed off his much-improved jumper, hitting four 22-footers, each with a toe on the three-point line. Against the immensely talented Lakers, there was reason to believe these four lost points would come back to haunt the Blazers. But not tonight in the Rose Garden, where Los Angeles can’t seem to buy a victory.

Bayless picked up where he left off to begin the second. He took that necessary step-back and nailed a three to break a 31-all tie. There would be no more ties in need of breaking, and Bayless, Brandon Roy, Webster, and the rest of the roster were to thank for that.

The Lakers fouled the Blazers like crazy in the period, so much so that they were in the penalty at the eight-minute mark. Portland took advantage, driving to the rim whenever the opportunity presented itself. Bayless was the man behind the aggressiveness. He took four of the ten free-throws attempted over the remainder of the period, and made all four. When the Blazers weren’t fouled, they were hitting shots against a defense trying not to foul, which meant more space on jumpers and more spacing on the court, opening up passing and scoring lanes. Their second-quarter aggressiveness against Los Angeles translated into a dominating 12-point halftime lead.

With such a lead, Portland came out of the break a little timid offensively. Bayless, who scored 16 points off the bench in the first half, watched his team’s lead dwindle from that bench. Webster played excellent defense against Bryant, forcing him to miss eight of fifteen first-half shots, but though his stifling defense continued, a talent like Bryant can’t be held down for long. Trusting his teammates (something he rarely does), he dished five assists on five-straight field goals during a short portion of the third, and the Lakers cut the deficit to five, 64-79.

The lead was then trimmed to three, but Portland soon regained their first-half swagger by hitting seven-straight shots, a stretch capped by Webster’s three-pointer falling into Los Angeles’s bench.

As to start the third quarter, the Blazers began to fourth in an offensive funk. But this time it didn’t hurt them. Their defense was incredible, especially Webster’s on Bryant. The Lakers star missed his final two shots of the third period and then his first four of the fourth, all due to Webster and help-defense from his teammates. Every Blazer was everywhere, grabbing rebounds, fighting for loose balls, and blocking shots. Nearly every shot was difficult for Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, shots started to fall for Portland. In traffic with seemingly nowhere to go, Bayless once again made his presence felt, splitting a triple-team to find Webster slashing to the hoop. Webster slammed, took a inadvertent smack on the head, then did a little shake-and-bake to shrug off the hit while strutting upcourt. The Blazers were in a magnificent groove. They were ahead by fourteen in a game I doubted they could win.

Why did I doubt Portland? Because it’s the Lakers. But that’s exactly the reason why I should have had the utmost confidence in them. They were playing a team they have owned, dominated, and embarrassed through the years.

Los Angeles tried to stave off another loss, and put the fear of God into the sellout crowd in their attempt to do so. They turned a 99-82 deficit into a 103-96 deficit in a matter of a few minutes. At this juncture, only ahead by four, Portland hadn’t made a field goal in nearly seven minutes. The good thing was, at this juncture, only 48 seconds remained.

Still, they were facing a team with Bryant, one of the most lethal scorers in NBA history. They had to shut the door, and who was there to do it? Roy. The Natural entered the locker-room two minutes before halftime, his tight hamstring bothering him to no end. The training staff that has been far too busy this season worked on him up until the third quarter began. During timeouts in the second half, he had his leg stretched, stretched so much it made Blazers announcer Mike Rice cringe. “If they did that to me, my leg would break”, he said. To Roy, it was pain worth bearing for a chance to once again lead his team to victory.

Andre Miller milked some clock out top then rifled a pass to Roy, who was cutting on the left baseline. The star guard swooped in for a layup, icing the victory and forcing Bryant’s arms to flail in disgust. With that, he had 30 points, and with that, Portland had pulled off another amazing win over a team they continue to crush on their home-floor, in front of their raucous home-crowd. A game the Lakers, not the injury-riddled Blazers, had no chance to win.

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Game Notes:

Roy had 32 points while taking only 11 shots. Eleven! He made 13-14 free-throws to compliment his 9 field goals. He had 19 points in the second half. He had zero turnovers.

Bryant had 32 points as well. It took him 37 shots to reach that point-total.

Webster played 46 minutes and five seconds, and spent all of his time on defense hounding Bryant, who missed 23 of those attempts. Though Roy led the team down the stretch, a win would not have been possible without Webster’s incredible defense on one of the game’s best.

Webster also had 14 points and 8 rebounds. What a night for him.

Miller had 17 points and 7 assists, Juwan “Old Man River” Howard had 8 points and 10 rebounds in 35 minutes, and Bayless added 21 huge points in 21 minutes, making 10-12 free-throws.

Portland took 39 free-throws to Los Angeles’s 10. They took 69 field goal attempts. Los Angeles took 93 field goal attempts. Wow.

Read Nate McMillan’s postgame comments here. In the interview session, he said, “I thought Martell played one of his best games as a pro.”

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