Lakers Are Smarting After Loss to Portland : Pro basketball: Their rally isn’t enough to keep them from falling behind Clippers in playoff race.

So, for the Bad News Lakers, it has come down to this: a moral victory. Considering the circumstances--the Portland Trail Blazers in town and James Worthy practically on his way to the hospital--maybe that’s not so bad.

Portland won the game Wednesday night at the Forum, 98-93, but, after trailing by 19 points in the third quarter, the Lakers at least made it close enough to entertain the crowd of 16,000 or so.

The announced attendance was 17,505 because all the tickets were sold, most of them presumably before this long season began.

It got longer earlier Wednesday, when the Lakers announced that their leading scorer, Worthy, will undergo exploratory arthroscopic surgery Friday or Saturday on his left knee. He could miss the final 16 games of the regular season.

Still, despite that body blow to their psyche, the Lakers had a chance to send the game into overtime after the Trail Blazers, leading by three, threw the ball away on an inbounds play at their end of the court with 11.2 seconds remaining. But A.C. Green’s three-point shot eight seconds later was too long.

Green probably was not the shooter that Laker Coach Mike Dunleavy wanted, but he didn’t quarrel with the shot.

“I’ll take that,� he said. “It was a decent look at the basket. It was a better look than Larry Bird had, I’ll tell you that.�

He was referring to the shot that Bird made to send the Celtics’ game Sunday at Boston Garden against the Trail Blazers into overtime. The Celtics eventually won in double overtime, reviving the critics who seem to enjoy taking shots at the Trail Blazers for their intelligence, or lack of it, every chance they get.

That isn’t often. The Trail Blazers have won nine of their last 10 games, and, at 48-19, have the NBA’s second-best record. They have won all four games this season against the Lakers.

“If we’re not smart, what’s that say about the rest of the NBA?� Portland guard Clyde Drexler said.

The Lakers would like to have Portland’s problems, but they have enough of their own, thank you. For one thing, they have a 34-32 record and are half a game behind the Clippers for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff berth.

For another, they will enter the final month of the regular season one or two players short. Besides learning that Worthy is lost to them for at least a couple of weeks, they watched forward Chucky Brown, who has given them life off the bench in recent games, go down in the second quarter with a mild sprain of his right ankle. He didn’t return for the second half but might be able to play at the Forum Friday night against Minnesota.

Until Wednesday, the Lakers were feeling good about themselves after winning three of five games without Worthy on their most-recent trip. But they buried themselves against the Trail Blazers by playing without much intensity in the first half. Portland led after 24 minutes, 57-41.

“No way we can come out against a team like the Portland Trail Blazers and play soft, like we did in the first half,� Dunleavy said. “We don’t have the ability to spot a team as good as they are as many points as we did and think we can come back and beat them.�

The fact that they almost did could mean that the critics are right about the Trail Blazers. Or, as the Trail Blazers contended, it could mean they were tired after playing at home Tuesday against Minnesota. Or, as Dunleavy contended, it could mean that the Lakers shouldn’t be given up for dead, yet.

“Our effort was good in the second half,� he said. “We’ve got to build on that in the last 16 games.�

Laker Notes

The Lakers have lost eight of their last 11 at the Forum. . . . Sam Perkins led the Lakers with 22 points. Sedale Threatt had 20 points and 10 assists. A.C. Green had 11 rebounds. . . . The Trail Blazers had balanced scoring, led by Cliff Robinson’s 18 points.