The Lakers were blown out by the Trail Blazers, 127-115, thanks to an incredible 3-point shooting performance from Portland, who hit 23 total triples on the night to walk away with the win.
Yes, LeBron James was out again, but with Anthony Davis facing off against an exhausted front line in Portland, a win not only seemed possible, it was downright expected. However, a win should never be assumed when the Lakers play Damian Lillard as he put on a show dropping 40 points to purple and gold.
The Lakers are now 26-32 overall and have lost another game they can’t afford to lose as they failed to gain ground overall against Portland by going head-to-head -Match won.
The whole game wasn’t a complete disaster and the opening minutes were good for LA. They were 12:5 ahead and the offensive hummed along and AD played well early on.
Then everything fell apart.
Red hot from the deep, Portland ran the Lakers out of the gym in the first quarter, hitting 10-14 threes in the opening frame alone. At first it was a combination of horrendous struggles from Rui Hachimura and the Blazers hitting shots, but Portland quickly gained momentum and it didn’t matter what LA did; The shots came for the Blazers and they finished with a 15-point lead after one.
Portland has hit more 3s in the first half than any other team this season in a half — 17 — including Damian Lillard’s 8th alone, just before the buzzer.
Lakers, who were just 3 for 17 of 3 and had 0 fast break points, lead 65-46.
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) February 14, 2023
The rest of the half was the checkers show, because whenever the Lakers did anything even resembling a running checkers, they countered with a 30+ foot jumper to get the crowd involved and keep LA at bay. Barely cooling from the deep, Portland hit another seven three-pointers in the second quarter, and with the Lakers facing a 19-point deficit at the half, that was all but done.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t done, and I was contracted to watch the Lakers be contracted to play.
But a comeback or a glimmer of hope was never found in the Pacific Northwest for LA as the deficit continued to widen marginally in the third game and made the rest of the game garbage time for the Lakers. With the loss a foregone conclusion, Darvin Ham vacated the bench, bringing on Max Christie andDaph Reed for the first time tonight and finally beating AD 6-42 in the game.
The central theses
If Portland hits an ungodly number of threes, do you just shrug MJ and move on? Was it just a coincidence? A game where Portland was hot and without your best player there’s not much left to analyze?
Well, yes and no.
The shooting was an anomaly. Portland usually isn’t The good at making threes, and despite their defensive challenges, the Lakers aren’t The bad. But they are bad. They allow the third-highest three-point percentage and are just decimal points away from being the worst in the league.
We talk so much about offensive lineups, LeBron and AD and the signings, but if you can’t defend the second (maybe even first) most valuable shot in the league, it doesn’t matter and the Lakers’ season will end in 82 games.
The Lakers have one game left before Tuesday’s much-needed All-Star break against the Pelicans. Let’s see if they can end this part of the season with a win.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.