Lakers, Trail Blazers feel the sleepy side of late-night tip-offs

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Terry Stotts was watching another NBA game on Thursday afternoon when his eyes fluttered. It only took the Portland coach a moment to realize he’d drifted off.

The Trail Blazers have moved their entire schedule back in the day to accommodate late practices and 9 p.m. tip-offs at the Disney campus, and everyone from coaches and players on down are encouraged to sleep in. But even Stotts can fall prey to a mid-afternoon spell now and then.

“It just shifts,” Stotts said of Portland’s schedule. “But I took a nap today. I was a little tired.”

Keeping one’s eyes open is a bit of a struggle for the late-playing teams in the NBA bubble, and for a team like the Lakers that supposedly has home-court advantage, it’s a great leveler that has helped reduce anything they’ve earned from their 52-19 record to next to nothing.

Sleep is commonly cited as one of the most important traits of athletic performance, which is why losing sleep is a bit of a headache for all the teams playing late games — also including the Dallas Mavericks and Clippers.

“It’s not ideal,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. “It’s like we’re playing on the road and traveling. That’s what it’s like.”

After 9 p.m. weekly tips, Vogel said, the Lakers usually get back to their rooms at 1 a.m. Games typically summon extra adrenaline that needs to be burned off, so it’s common for many on the team not to fall asleep until 3 a.m. Some players have been unable to fall asleep until 4:30 a.m.

Teams have tried to encourage players especially to sleep in the most they can, but Vogel said he finds that practices can drag a little the day after a game.

“The difference is it’s like you’re doing it every game,” he said. “It’s like you’re playing every game of a playoff series and traveling after the game. So it’s a challenge. It’s part of our challenge.”

The lack of travel days also means fewer days between games, which one might presume leaves coaches and players little time to make adjustments in between. But Stotts, whose team has only had one stretch with two days between games since the bubble opened, said he prefers the quick pace.

“Sometimes in the old schedule, having two or three days off in between games is kind of a long time,” he said. “You get your work done, you do your preparation, and then you jump right into the next game. So I kind of like the every other day (schedule).”

Rondo still inactive

The Lakers bumped up point guard Rajon Rondo to questionable on Wednesday, but he was still inactive for Thursday’s Game 2. He worked out in a full-court scenario on Wednesday during practice with other players, but he’s missed a lot of time since fracturing his thumb in July.

“You go five or six weeks without playing basketball, you can work out all you want it’s just not the same as playing a game,” Vogel said. “So he’s just gotta get his legs under him.”

Portland is unlikely to have forward Zach Collins at all for the first round after an MRI showed a stress reaction in his ankle. Collins was one of the players who actually got healthy for the restart, averaging 7 points and 6.3 rebounds in just 11 games.

“He obviously helped us get into the playoffs, so he’s had a long year rehabbing and getting back and putting himself in a position to play this season,” Stotts said. “And for that to happen is discouraging for him. Thankfully it’s not that serious, but it’s enough to keep him out of these games. We were looking forward to having him back, and obviously he was, too.”