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 has grown 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 was missing 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.

The Lakers chipped away at the lead and Bryant’s long jumper on the baseline closed Los Angeles to 50-48.

The Blazers led 69-61 at the break, but the Lakers opened the second half with a 10-0 run capped by Howard’s hook shot to pull ahead 71-69, their first lead of the game. Howard’s layup extended the lead to 78-71.

The Blazers were hurt when Claver rolled his ankle late in the third quarter and retreated to the locker room, but they stayed on the Lakers’ heels, coming within 86-85 on Eric Maynor’s running jumper and pulling in front on Luke Babbitt’s 3 pointer.

Maynor’s fadeaway put Portland up 95-90.

“It was a very good effort by our team, but unfortunately we couldn’t pull it out,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “A couple of plays down the stretch could have gone either way, a couple of shots could have gone either way. For the most part, I thought it was a well-played game against a team that’s pretty hungry to make the playoffs.”

Game notes

Combined with the Lakers’ 104-96 victory over New Orleans on Tuesday night, it was the first time this season the Lakers had won both games of a back-to-back. … Lillard was awarded the NBA’s Community Assist award for March because of his anti-bullying campaign. He is the fourth rookie to win the honor, and first since Atlanta’s Al Horford in 2008. More than 5,000 fans have signed a pledge to help end bullying as part of Lillard’s “Respect” program. … Lillard became second Portland rookie to go over 500 assists. Kelvin Ransey had 555 in the 1980-81 season. … The Blazers had won three straight and 12 of their last 14 against the Lakers at the Rose Garden.

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After No. 1 Duke lost to North Carolina State a day earlier, the Wolverines were in prime position to ascend to No. 1 for the first time since November 1992. Instead, they went home with their first loss, also depriving them of the best start in school history.

“Some go in and some don’t,” said Burke, a sophomore who just happens to be from Columbus and is friends with several of the Buckeyes. “I thought it was going in. It looked good. I think it went in and then came out.”

Michigan (16-1, 3-1 Big Ten) trailed 52-50 and had the ball as the seconds sifted away. Everyone in a hoarse, capacity crowd of 18,809 knew that Burke, a star at Columbus’ Northland High School where he was a teammate of former Buckeye Jared Sullinger, would likely take the last shot.

Aaron Craft — whom Michigan coach John Beilein said was as good as any defender he had ever seen — prevented Burke from driving. His path blocked, Burke jumped back and then launched the shot.

“We were up two, so that makes it a little more challenging for me,” said Craft, selected as the Big Ten’s top defender a year ago. “Fortunately enough for me, that shot he took rimmed in and out. I kind of turned around (and saw) we grabbed the rebound.”

Lenzelle Smith Jr. grabbed the rebound. A moment later he was fouled again and hit two free throws for breathing room. Craft, who had struggled on offense most of the season, then made two more foul shots to more than offset Burke’s circus 3-pointer with a second left.

The Buckeyes had done most of their offensive damage early, following Burke’s opening 3-pointer with a 16-0 run that was started and ended with baskets by Deshaun Thomas, who led the Buckeyes (13-3, 3-1) with 20 points. From there on, it was just a matter of whether Ohio State — which had blown a late lead at Duke in November — could hold off the Wolverines, who came in averaging 81 points a game with four starters in double figures.

Burke led Michigan, which was trying to exceed the 16-0 start of the 1985-86 team, with 15 points. Tim Hardaway Jr. added 12. Down 21 points in the first half, Michigan kept chipping away.

The Wolverines switched defenses, causing the Buckeyes problems with matchup zones. Eventually, Glenn Robinson III flipped in a 3-pointer from the right wing to tie it at 46 with just under 6 minutes left.

The Buckeyes regained some momentum when Shannon Scott fed post player Evan Ravenel for a dunk to regain the lead. On the next possession, Ohio State went inside again and Ravenel, averaging 6.3 points a game, bulled his way for another basket.

After another Michigan missed shot, Thomas took a pass on the left baseline and made a quick spin to the end line before banking in a shot for a 52-46 lead.

The Wolverines missed six straight field goal attempts down the stretch, going scoreless for more than 4 minutes until Burke hit two free throws with 1:37 left to cut the lead to 52-48.

A steal and dunk by Robinson made it 52-50 with 1:16 left, setting up the potential tying shot by Burke, who grew up a rabid fan of the Buckeyes but wasn’t recruited by coach Thad Matta because he already had Craft and was close to signing Scott to play point.

“He got a heck of a look at it,” Matta said of Burke’s shot.

The Buckeyes have been at their best against their worst opponents, and vice versa. They came into the game 12-0 vs. unranked teams and 0-3 against those in the Top 25. But after what even the players called an up-and-down season, they came up especially big against their most heated opponent.

After Craft had discounted the possibility that the Buckeyes drew any extra incentive by wanting to prevent their archrivals from taking over the top spot in the polls, Ravenel spoke up.

“There’s always satisfaction in denying Michigan the No. 1 spot in the country,” he said with a wide grin.

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