This tale is titled: How the West was Lost.

After falling behind 3-1 in what promised to be a monumental Western Conference finals, considering only the Los Angeles Lakers had a better record in the NBA than the Portland Trail Blazers, the Blazers came within a quarter of doing what before the playoffs was perceived as unthinkable.

But on the way to becoming only the seventh team in NBA history to win a series after losing three of four, the Blazers went positively cold in the fourth quarter to hand over a 89-84 decision to the Lakers in Game 7 after leading by 16 in the closing seconds of the third period.

Yes, you can say the officials choked on their whistles in the final 30 seconds when Steve Smith was knocked to the floor and the outcome still in doubt. But that was a minor detail.

Just as the Blazers had every chance to win Games 3 and 4 in Portland -- only to blow early leads and lose -- the Blazers were on the verge of blowing out the Lakers in the Staples Center as the third quarter was rolling to a close.

Behind the brilliant play of Rasheed Wallace (30 points) and Smith's 18, the Blazers opened up a 16-point lead late in the period, and they never recovered.

Instead of pushing the ball up the floor for early post-ups for Wallace, Smith and Bonzi Wells, the Blazers began to walk the ball up the floor. The shot-clock wound down, and they lost rhythm in their offense.

This answered the ultimate question of how the veteran, deeply balanced, team -- the one that cost $74 million for team president Bob Whitsitt to build out of the Paul Allen billions -- would fair against two of the best players in the NBA and a crew of aging veterans.

Maybe Shaquille O'Neal was way below his average with 18 points and 9 rebounds for the Lakers, and Kobe Bryant put up dominant numbers with 25 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists, after a shaky start and horrible free throw shooting (6-for-12). But the bench of the Lakers, with Robert Horry scoring 12 and Brian Shaw 11, helped outscore the vaunted Portland bench in Game 7, 25-13.

"They had guys all over me and I knew my guys would step forward," O'Neal said. "When we were 13 down (going into the fourth quarter), I told them it's do or die. Nobody had beaten us three straight and now's the time."

The run actually began on Shaw's unlikely 3-point bank in the final seconds of the third quarter, cutting the 16-point advantage to 13. In fact Shaw, a Blazer last year, ultimately hit 3-of-4 3s Sunday after making all four of his attempts in Game 6 as well.

"That was a big shot," Blazers coach Mike Dunleavy said. "It gave them something."

Still, Smith hit an 8-foot runner in the lane to push it back up to 15 just 13 seconds into the final period. How could anyone know that would be Portland's only field goal until Wallace scored in the post with 2:58 left in the game? It ended a 17-2 run that made the previously stunned Staples Center crowd delirious.

"We got some great looks," Dunleavy said. "We just didn't put the ball in the hole. Maybe our legs in the second half were a little bit tired."

Damon Stoudamire sits dejected after the Blazers lose Game 7.(AP)

Whatever the case, they just didn't have it. Perhaps they blew the series in Games 3 or 4. The valiant efforts by Dunleavy and his troops to come so close to pulling it out with wins in Games 5 and 6 maybe overshadowed how they let those games in Portland get away.

The exclamation point came with under a minute left and Bryant driving past Scottie Pippen down the lane and lofting a one-hand lob high above the rim to the right. O'Neal grabbed it and slammed it through with such ferocity that it caused an 8.0 reading on the Richter scale. The ensuing timeout by Dunleavy came with 41.3 seconds left and the Lakers now leading by six.

It was over, the non-call on the Smith drive or not. The game and the series was there to be won by Pippen, Smith, Wallace and Co. They played with confidence in a huge portion of the series that said they were the better team overall, and figured they deserved to meet the Indiana Pacers in the Finals.

Instead, a team that goes nearly nine minutes without a field goal in the fourth quarter of a Game 7 in the conference finals isn't going to win. It isn't the better team.

In fact, it explains precisely on this Sunday in the spring of 2000, How the West was Lost.