D’Angelo Russell and the Lakers Send Response with Win over Portland

This Sunday night in Los Angeles, the Lakers were looking for a response after dropping Friday’s game against Brooklyn and that’s what their 134-110 win over Portland was tonight —a strong response.  

The Lakers opened up this game firing on all cylinders and went on a 9-2 run in the first three minutes. But as the quarter carried on, Portland found their footing and shrunk LAL’s lead to one. Was Los Angeles’ strength and energy going to lose steam like a few nights prior? No shot.  

The most encouraging part of tonight’s dominant win was the team connectivity; the guys finished with a season-high of 35 fast-break points. The Trail Blazers had only eight. “The only way to get fast-break points is to defend,” LeBron James said after the game. 

Everyone contributed and everyone lifted each other up. The result was frequent flashes of beautiful Lakers Basketball.  

At 8:22 in the first quarter, Anthony Davis went behind the back and tossed up a floater from the mid-range. He is 6’ 10”. It was very point guard-esque. The big man finished with 14 points, 14 rebounds, and three assists.  

Then, to open the second quarter, Jarred Vanderbilt had a mean steal about a minute and a half in to put his team up by nine. Vando had two steals in 8:46 of his first-half playing time. The Lakers had six steals to open the game which largely informed their 19 fast break points.  Vando finished +8, with four points, four rebounds, two assists, and two steals.  

To close the half, off another steal, D’Angelo Russell received the ball under the glass on the Lakers’ offensive end. LeBron was coming down the floor and Russell served James up with an alley-oop off a bounce.  

Los Angeles didn’t have any plans of letting up in the closing half. LeBron had an acrobatic finish to a dunk where he completed a reverse summersault, he popped up and ran down the floor to defend. On the next play, James tossed up a three to bring himself to 24 points. The 39-year-old King finished with 28 points, five assists, and five rebounds.  

And at 9:02 in the third period, D’Lo was shooting 60% from three (6-for-10). A bit later, he was alone on a fast break and pulled a very, very smooth behind-the-back move out of his bag. DLo was decisive, he was smooth, and he was confident tonight…he has been. Tonight, he led his team with 34 points and eight assists. “This is one of the most complete games I’ve seen since he’s been back in a Lakers uniform,” Darvin said of his starting point guard.  

The team finished with 27 assists tonight, again there was major connectivity going on between the squad. With three more dimes, it would’ve been their sixth straight game with 30+ assists.  

Next game is Tuesday against the Clippers. Will the guys string together a run and make it 3-0 over the cross-town team this season?