For nine seasons, Jackson coached Pippen on the Chicago Bulls, winning six NBA title. Now the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, playing Pippen and his new team, the Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference finals, Jackson is very much aware of how Pippen handles being the leader of the Blazers.

Suffice to say, Pippen isn't about to put up 25 shots a game when challenged.

"A lot has been made of that (no go-to-guy) with the Portland team," Jackson said. "But you know Pippen is the kind of guy gives them that. They can go to him and he creates stuff for them. Maybe not score, but more or less regulate offense and orchestrate what has to be done out there."

Which is exactly what Jackson wants -- other people taking the shots. That was all too apparent as the Blazers blew a 14-point lead Friday night, then battled back too late as the Lakers stole Game 3 of this best-of-7 series 93-91. The 2-1 series lead taken by the Lakers eliminated the advantage the Blazers had gained by stealing Game 2 in Los Angeles on Monday.

Part of that was taking Pippen out of the offensive flow until the final five minutes of the game when he scored eight of his 12 points. Against conventional wisdom, Jackson has matched up his best defender, Kobe Bryant, against Pippen, knowing full well Pippen knows other players will have better looks as a consequence. If it were Michael Jordan, for example, he would accept the challenge and try to score more. Pippen looks at it as a playmaker.

"That's why I matched (Bryant) up with Scottie, so he'd have enough pressure so he wouldn't feel comfortable going at the basket," Jackson said. "I knew he'd back off and make plays for other players and that worked to our advantage the first three quarters."

There were plenty of other reasons why the Blazers blew the game. You can pick out any number of turning points to the final seconds when Arvydas Sabonis passed up an open 12-footer to drive to the basket, only to have Bryant block the shot.

When Rasheed Wallace turned his ankle midway through the third quarter, the Blazers offense and defense went dead.

But the problems started long before that. The Blazers had a 14-point lead with just less than five minute left and a fast break. Damon Stoudamire attempted a no-look pass and threw it right into the hands of Lakers forward Rick Fox, and a 3-pointer followed from Lakers reserve guard Derek Fisher. It set off a 7-0 run that got the Lakers right back into the game.

The Blazers still maintained that lead until late in the third quarter. That wasn't the point. The momentum from Game 2 and the start of Game 3 had vanished for Portland, and Los Angeles had seized control of the series.

"We made some mistakes that are easily correctable for us in order to get the series back to even, starting tomorrow," Blazes coach Mike Dunleavy said. "We could have maybe broken the game open for ourselves in the first half. But we didn't do that. They're a terrific team and they're mindset was to try and come back. They started getting all the loose balls, and second-chance points, and stole our momentum."

Then the game, and very likely the series now, considering the Lakers have regained their home court advantage. Wallace said everything is OK with his ankle. Steve Smith said having won Game 2 in L.A. so easily and gaining the big lead in Game 3 proves their capabilities and gives them confidence.

Scottie Pippen has been held in check at times by the defense of Kobe Bryant.(AP)

Nonetheless, Pippen remained extremely irritated Saturday, even more than he was after the game Friday night.

"We were knuckleheads last night," Pippen said. "We felt like we had them where we wanted them. If we hadn't made all those mistakes in the first half, we had a chance to break them and have a chance to really have them down here. We just have to go get tomorrow's game and forget about it."

The pressure is on them in the must-win situation. But with less than 48 hours to recover, Shaquille O'Neal played 48 minutes and Bryant 47 in Friday's game. They have dominated the Blazers when sharp and it's imperative Portland doesn't let them go off.

By the same token, it was apparent the Lakers broke some of the high spirit of the Blazers with patience, something that was never part of the Lakers personality in past seasons.

"Everything that starts out hot, must go cold," O'Neal said. "You put a croissant in a microwave and you take it out, it's hot ... hot! But eventually, it will cool down. And I think they cooled down a lot and we withstood all their pressure and pulled it out."

No dissin' Harper

It was no coincidence that Ron Harper hit the game-winning shot Friday night for the Lakers. During the timeout before his winning shot, Harper encouraged his teammates to look for him since Pippen had been virtually ignoring him the entire series.

Bryant drove hard to the right of the key into a double-team and found Harper all alone on the left baseline for the perfect 19-footer.

"The only thing I told the guys was my man is not guarding me," Harper said. "He didn't do it the first two games, so he ain't doing it now. Scottie ain't guarded me all series long. The only thing I said was I'm going to find a nice spot for a shot."

But Harper, a former teammate of Pippen's on the Bulls, wasn't about to say it was the biggest shot of his career by any stretch of the imagination.

"When I shot the ball, it felt good ... so I can't complain about it," Harper said. "It was the biggest shot this season, I'll go from there."

Rasheed speaks

After getting fined $10,000 for avoiding the media earlier in the series (not to mention the Blazers getting socked for $25,000), forward Rasheed Wallace chatted briefly about his slightly sprained ankle and the disappointment of blowing the big lead.

"(The ankle) is cool," Wallace said. "It was a problem last night, but I'll be all right tomorrow. They played some good 'D' down the stretch. I'd rather get blown out than lose by two points, one point, but that's the way the game goes. You can't do anything about that."

Wallace scored 19 points Friday night, sharing scoring honors for the Blazers with Damon Stoudamire. The sense of urgency to regain some momentum is obvious ... then again, that's the way it is in the post-season anyway.

"It's a must win because every playoff game is a must win," Wallace said. "We had them, and we did let them get back into it. It was our fault we didn't go back out in the second half with that killer instinct, like we came out in Game 2. We'll be all right on Sunday. We just have to cut down on our turnovers and make the plays."

Shots from the perimeter

• This is the third time in franchise history the Blazers have been in the conference finals in consecutive seasons; they made it in 1990, 1991 and 1992. Their other trip was in 1977, when they won their lone NBA title in franchise history. Incredibly enough, this is the Lakers' 24th trip to the conference finals.
• Rumors continue to fly that Sidney Lowe will be named coach of the Grizzlies any day now. It now seems like the only hope for Lenny Wilkens to gain a job as head coach next season is with the Clippers, if they can't swing a deal with Mike Fratello. But in true form for owner Donald Sterling, he is offering neither big money nor long-term security, which means Nuggets assistant John Lucas might end up as their next coach, with John MacLeod a long shot.
• Isiah Thomas, Byron Scott and Rick Carlisle are still the top candidates to replace Larry Bird in Indiana.
• The locals in our nation's capital remain mystified at which direction Michael Jordan is going with the coach of the Wizards.
• The Nets are still interested in Thomas, Kenny Smith and maybe Scott.