Lakers News: L.A. Blows Late Lead To Lose Matinee Vs. Portland, 106-104
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Damian Lillard scores 41 for Trail Blazers.
Your Los Angeles Lakers lost a heartbreaker at home to Damian Lillard and his Portland Trail Blazers. L.A. coughed up a seven-point advantage in the game’s closing two minutes to drop a very winnable game to the visiting Trail Blazers, falling 106-104 after a weak fadeaway attempt to tie by LeBron James missed at the buzzer.
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L.A. had a shaky first half, and it entered the break trailing Portland 55-48. Though the Lakers passed well and remained aggressive defensively, the team’s 1-of-16 mark from three-point land hurt it tremendously through the game’s first two quarters.
In the third quarter, Los Angeles finally got its act together from beyond the arc (somewhat). The team quickly went 5-of-13 from deep, and would go on to secure the edge heading into the final frame, 83-78.
Unfortunately, L.A. leaned too heavily on Russell Westbrook all night, and that extended for far too much time into the fourth quarter.
The Lakers led 98-90 with 4:42 remaining when Darvin Ham subbed a newly healthy Troy Brown Jr. out of the game so Russell Westbrook could feel involved. During his time on the floor in this stretch, Westbrook would pull down one rebound and eventually brick a pull-up attempt, eventually getting swapped out in favor of Austin Reaves with 12.4 seconds remaining in the game. Because the Trail Blazers so devalued Westbrook as a shooting threat, the team just stuck center Jusuf Nurkic on him for long stretches of the action.
After the lead had been cut to 102-101, Patrick Beverley did his darnedest to draw a foul on Nurkic with 21.4 seconds remaining. The big man got whistled for the foul, but after Portland requested a review the call was reversed and the Trail Blazers got possession. Damian Lillard instantly made a triple, proving that rumors of his All-NBA demise may have been greatly exaggerated. LeBron James responded with this poorly-defended dunk on the other end, tying the game up at 104-104:
Portland quickly responded, with Jerami Grant cutting inside for what would turn out to be the winning bucket:
James forced up a buzzer-beating midrange turnaround jumper attempt with Lillard switched onto him at the end of regulation. It clanked off the rim and time expired. The Trail Blazers improved their 2022-23 record to 3-0 with their 106-104 win, while the Lakers fell to 0-3 with the loss.
When the dust had settled, the Trail Blazers had gone on an 11-2 run in the game’s final minutes.
Lillard scored 41 points on 15-of-25 shooting from the floor, including 12 points in the game’s decisive fourth quarter.
The Lakers honestly may not win their first game for nearly another two weeks. L.A. will face off against a tanking Utah Jazz team on Friday, November 4th, though as of this writing Utah started out its season 2-0, much to the presumptive chagrin of Danny Ainge.
On the plus side, James did tie Utah Jazz Hall of Famer Karl Malone (a one-time Laker during the team’s infamous 2003-04 season) for the current record of 20+ point games in league history, with 1,134. Given how few scorers the Lakers have, James will probably need to surpass that record on Wednesday when L.A. squares off against the Denver Nuggets (uh oh).
Anthony Davis and James both had big nights. Davis notched a 22-point, 10-rebound double-double on 9-of-17 shooting from the field, while LBJ had 31 points on 12-of-22 shooting, along with eight assists and eight rebounds. Starting small forward Lonnie Walker IV was once again the team’s third-leading scorer, notching 15 points on 7-of-13 shooting. Westbrook had 10 points on 4-of-15 shooting and finished with a -4 plus-minus, worst among the team’s starting five.
L.A. went 6-of-33 from deep. Through three games, they’re shooting 25-of-108 from distance.