The defending Western Conference champions kicked the Blazers in the teeth early, survived a third-quarter surge, then let Kobe Bryant deliver the knockout blow en route to a 96-76 opening-night victory at Staples Center.

"It was like going up against your big brother in your backyard," Portland center Joel Przybilla said. "We want to get where they're at. It was a good lesson."

Teammate Brandon Roy had the same kind of analogy in mind.

"It's like we were in the middle of a fight, and we got knocked down," said the All-Star guard, held to a pair of free throws through most of three quarters. "Maybe we were feeling ourselves a little bit, thinking it was going to be pretty. We got away from what we do. I can almost guarantee we won't do that again Friday."

That's the date of Portland's home opener against San Antonio. There is work to be done before then.

LAKERS 96, TRAIL BLAZERS 76: The Blazers laid an egg on the biggest stage possible, shooting .345 from the field and generally looking the part of playoff pretenders.

"We were a little bit nervous, and the Lakers are on a mission this season," Portland coach Nate McMillan said. "We talked about what we want to do, and we found out we can't talk, we have to play the game. We weren't ready for the level of play tonight.

"After a few minutes, that nervousness just turned into playing basketball. (The Lakers) were the aggressors. They jumped on us, kept the pressure on us. We couldn't run an offense. Defensively we couldn't get into our schemes. It was just total domination."