Carmelo Anthony, Portland Trail Blazers steal Game 1 from LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers

The Portland Trail Blazers pulled out Game 1 of their first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night, winning 100-93 thanks to rugged interior defense and some timely shooting down the stretch.

The Blazers led 36-25 after the first quarter but the Lakers slowly chipped away at their deficit before trailing 57-56 at halftime and 78-75 entering the fourth quarter. The Lakers built an 87-81 lead in the fourth before the Blazers came back to lead 89-87 with 5:08 remaining.

From that point on, the Blazers did what they have done so often since the NBA restart: They hit key shots and got timely stops.

“I thought it was a great effort from our team,” Damian Lillard said.

IT WAS OVER WHEN …

Hassan Whiteside blocked a LeBron James shot at the rim and that led to a deep three from Lillard to give the Blazers a 92-89 lead with 3:12 remaining. After another defensive stop, former Syracuse basketball star Carmelo Anthony made a three for Portland to make it 95-89 with 2:33 left.

The Lakers got a tip-in from James and then a dunk from Anthony Davis to make the score 95-93 with 1:35 to play.

But once again, the Blazers responded with a three-pointer, this time from Gary Trent Jr., whose three made it 98-93 with 1:15 left in the game.

“I was really happy for both Melo and Gary Trent,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “Neither one of them were shooting very well throughout the game.”

The Lakers never recovered.

“We made the plays at both ends to pull out the win,” Lillard said.

SHOWED UP AND SHOWED OUT

Lillard had 23 points in the first half and finished with 34 and five assists. However, he had just two points in the third quarter and didn’t score a field goal in the second half until he made a three at the 7:33 mark of the fourth quarter. Soon after, he came back with another.

Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic in the first half had 14 points and 10 rebounds but had a rough second half. Still, he finished with 16 points and 15 rebounds.

Whiteside came off the bench and had seven points and eight rebounds. But most important, he blocked five shots. He altered numerous other shots.

“He had a big impact on the game. He and Nurk complemented each other,” Stotts said.

James had 23 points, 17 rebounds and a playoff career-high 16 assists for the Lakers.

Davis was 5 of 15 in the first half but made 11 of 13 free throws. He finished with 28 points and 11 rebounds but shot just 8 of 24 from the field.

SHOWED UP AND FIZZLED

Trent has now struggled in three of the Blazers’ past four games. On Tuesday he made just 2 of 8 shots, but he hit his most important shot of the game.

Anthony made 3 of 11 shots for 11 points. But, like Trent, he came up big when it mattered the most.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope of the Lakers missed all nine of his shot attempts and finished with one point in 20 minutes.

BENCH SCORING

The Lakers were clearly the deeper team and received 25 points from four bench players while the Blazers got 14 points from three backups. But the Blazers’ bench, led by Trent and Whiteside, made more winning plays in the fourth quarter.

“When he plays like that, we’re going to be really hard to beat,” CJ McCollum (21 points) said of Whiteside.

POOR SHOOTING

Outside shooting has been a problem for the Lakers and that continued Tuesday. The Lakers made 2 of 14 three-point attempts in the first half and finished 5 of 31 (15.6%).

The Blazers, who have shot well for most of the restart, shot just 39.2% from the field. But they did get it going on three-point shots and finished at 38.2%.

“There’s a lot of things we can improve upon, collectively, and take that into Game 2,” McCollum said.

WENYEN GABRIEL’s START

Rookie Wenyen Gabriel started in place of the injured Zach Collins (ankle) and brought some energy but couldn’t stay on the court.

Gabriel, who against the Lakers on Jan. 31 fouled out in 13 minutes, committed four fouls in the first half and had five by the end of the third quarter. He finished with four points and three rebounds in 16 minutes.

Collins’ status for Game 2 is unknown.

NEXT

Game 2 will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday.

— Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook).

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