Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant passes as Portland Trail Blazers shooting guard Sasha Pavlovic defends during second half of their NBA basketball game in Portland, Oregon, April 10, 2013.[Photo/Agencies]

 

It didn't matter that it was the Rose Garden. The "M-V-P!" chant for Kobe Bryant was loud and clear.

Bryant scored a season-high 47 points and carried the Los Angeles Lakers closer to a playoff berth with a 113-106 victory over the short-handed but tenacious Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.

The Lakers moved a full game up on the Utah Jazz for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

"We've got no breathing room at all," Bryant said. "I'm still on edge. We've got to win three more games and we're in."

Portland, missing the playoffs for the second straight season, has lost nine straight, the most since an 11-game skid in the 2005-06 season. Rookie Damian Lillard led the Blazers with a career-high 38 points.

Pau Gasol had 23 points, seven rebounds and nine assists, while Dwight Howard added 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Lakers. Bryant was 18 of 18 from the free-throw line and played the entire game, determined to pull out a win after trailing early.

"What he (Bryant) is doing is phenomenal. He's determined to get us in the playoffs," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said. "That's what happens when you open your mouth and guarantee that we'll get in the playoffs."

Bryant vowed in late February that his team would make it to the postseason. The Lakers wrap up the regular season at home with games against playoff-bound Golden State, San Antonio and Houston.

Gasol knotted the game at 96 with a layup and a jumper with 7:09 left. After Lillard's 15-footer, Gasol added another jumper to tie it again. His layup gave the Lakers a 102-100 edge before Bryant hit a pair of free throws and added a 23-foot jump shot with 4:09 left to make it 106-100.

Howard's alley-oop dunk from Gasol with 53 seconds left made it 110-104 and all but sealed it.

For much of the game, it seemed like Bryant the veteran against Lillard the upstart rookie.

"He's spectacular ... really fantastic," Bryant said of the Blazers' five-time rookie of the month. "A lot of players get hot, but he's got the moves, patience, intelligence, the balance on his jumpers. He's the real deal."

Lillard grew up admiring Bryant.

"I got to guard him and he got to guard me," Lillard said. "I enjoyed the challenge. "

The deck was stacked from the start against the Blazers, who started four rookies for the first time in the team's history.

Portland was without starters Wesley Matthews (ankle), J.J. Hickson (back) and Nicolas Batum (right shoulder). As a result, two-time All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge was the only veteran starting with rookie forward Victor Claver, guards Lillard and Will Barton and center Meyers Leonard.

Matthews injured his right ankle in Portland's 96-91 loss to Dallas on Sunday, while Batum missed his fourth straight game with a sore shoulder. Hickson says he's been dealing with a painful lower back for the past several games.

But the rookies got off to an astonishingly fast start, going up 17-8 on Lillard's fadeaway jumper. Lillard banked in a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 22-12 and the Blazers made eight of their first nine shots from the field.

He hit another 3 to make it 35-25 and the Blazers went on to lead 41-33 at the end of the first, their most points in the opening quarter this season.