Consider Scottie Pippen

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a bona fide cat burglar from now on, after his antics kept the Los Angeles Lakers at bay at critical junctures.

Trail Blazers coach Mike Dunleavy also calmed his team when it could have unraveled early in the fourth quarter, and Portland forced a Game 6 on Friday night with a 96-88 victory at Staples Center.

The Lakers still lead the best-of-7 series 3-2 but home courts have turned into a huge disadvantage in the West. The visiting team has won the past four games, and most ominous for the Lakers is their first two-game losing streak inside their new $400 million arena.

"We know we can win in this building," said Dunleavy, who probably wishes Games 6 and 7 (if needed) could be played here. At the Rose Garden, the Blazers held double-digit leads in the first halves of Games 3 and 4 only to lose both.

"We just have to forget the fact that we lost the last two at home," Pippen said. "We were aggressive to the basket, and that allowed us to push the ball in transition. We can outplay this team, and we have outplayed them in this series. We feel like we'll outplay them every time we go out on the floor."

That happened in nearly every category Tuesday, when the Lakers never led. Pippen played as if he had a personal vendetta against his old pals Phil Jackson and Ron Harper.

Pippen reinforced that with a prickly ending to his postgame press conference, when someone lobbed a Jackson-esque question at him.

"Phil is not my coach, and I'm not listening to anything you tell me about what Phil has to say," Pippen said. "Good day."

Either Jackson's words -- that Pippen shouldn't have been playing in the game after elbowing John Salley in the back of the head late in Game 4 -- are starting to get to Pippen, or that left hand was really starting to throb.

In a nasty spill over Robert Horry in the first quarter, Pippen dislocated the ring and middle fingers on his left hand. He grimaced on the sideline while Portland trainer Jay Jensen slipped the digits back into place.

It was a sterling night for the Blazers because of Pippen, who finished with 22 points, six rebounds, six steals, four blocked shots and three assists. Despite the pain in his left hand most of the game, the right-handed-shooting Pippen shot better (8-for-12) than anyone who played Tuesday.

"He's been around, so he knows what it takes," said Detlef Schrempf. "He's more aggressive, he's focused and he's setting a good example for everyone else."

The Lakers nudged to within 48-45 on two free throws by Bryant with 53 seconds remaining in the first half, but Rasheed Wallace responded with a strong drive through the lane and a layup for Portland.

Pippen then upset Bryant's rhythm, stripping him of the ball with about 16 seconds left. The Blazers passed it around, and Schrempf ended up tossing the ball to Pippen in the right corner with two ticks on the clock.

Pippen drilled the shot, falling backward after getting nudged by Bryant and then giving a couple of words to two fans, whose laps he ended up in, sitting courtside.

They had moved their daiquiris and sushi in the nick of time.

The brief elation that L.A. felt by getting within three points of Portland was quelled as soon as it erupted, and the Blazers sped into their locker room with their confidence and the game's momentum intact.

A similar script was written at the end of the third quarter, when Ron Harper sailed in for a layup to cut the Blazers' lead to 72-67.

Steve Smith hit a 13-foot jumper, and then Pippen stole passes from Shaquille O'Neal and Rick Fox on consecutive L.A. possessions, which Portland turned into a pair of free throws by Wallace and a Schrempf layin.

Poof! An 11-point edge by the Blazers then became 13 at the end of the quarter when O'Neal threw it away again, Fox committed a foul with 1.3 seconds left and Schrempf sank both free throws.

"We didn't get lazy," said Blazers forward Brian Grant.

"Those little glitches at the end of the periods really bothered us," Jackson said. "(They) took momentum away from us. It was a lack of concentration on our part, and our focus was out of kilter a bit."

The sellout crowd of 18,997 roared back into the fray, though, early in the fourth quarter. Bryant hit two free throws and an off-balance shot that also sent him to the free-throw line on a reach by Bonzi Wells.

Less than 10 minutes remained, and during an official timeout Dunleavy stressed patience, high-percentage shots and stifling defense.

Bryant missed the free throw, and the Lakers -- who lost last week's game here when the Blazers scored 20 consecutive points on them -- didn't answer the bell again on the court they so desperately want to defend.

Scottie Pippen attempts to steal a ball from Ron Harper. Pippen had six steals in Game 5.(AP)

Schrempf lured Shaq out of the lane, then dumped it low where Grant finagled a three-point play. Pippen schooled Bryant, hamstrung with five fouls, inside. And Wallace hit a nifty left-to-right leaner in the lane.

Meanwhile, the Lakers became unglued on offense, mostly because Bryant, 21, reverted to his 18-year-old days. Mostly, that entails making a decision on where and how to shoot at the apex of your jump.

And Southern Californians thought Bryant had started to save his goofy-footing techniques for the surf.

In a span of a bit more than two minutes, Bryant was called for shuffling his feet at the top of the key and O'Neal was whistled for camping out in the lane. Bryant soon got slapped with his sixth foul, and Wallace sealed the shenanigans with a sweeping skyhook to make it 93-80 with about four minutes remaining.

Wallace's teammates howled at him for that one in the showers afterward, when laughter echoed off the tiles and into the visitors' small dressing area.

"I missed one jump hook," Wallace laughed back, "but that last one was a skyhook. A sky hook."

Heading back to Portland, the Blazers know it's no time to be sky-high. Or lazy. They just have to steal a game on their own court.