The Los Angeles Lakers showed what they are all about on Sunday night against the Portland Trail Blazers. Trailing by 25 points at halftime, LeBron James, Thomas Bryant and Dennis Schroder led the way in the second half as the Lakers fought all the way back and left Portland with a nine-point road victory.
LeBron finished with 37 points and 11 rebounds, Bryant tied a career-high with 31 points and 14 rebounds, and Schroder scored 22 of his 24 points in the second half to spark the comeback and give the Lakers their third victory in the last four games.
Being down by 25 at the half, it would have been easy for the Lakers to simply accept defeat and move on to the next game. But as James noted after the game, that simply isn’t in the DNA of this Lakers team, via NBA.com:
“I guess it’s only one of two ways: You can either go out and you can just lay down and get ready for next game, or you can see what can happen in the third quarter and make a game of it. For us as competitors and our team and our makeup this year, we’re not a lay down team, it’s just not the makeup of our club. So we came out and showed the makeup of our club in the third quarter, gave ourselves a chance going into the fourth and turned it into a few possession game, into a couple possession game, then a one possession game and was able to take the lead I believe on was that Thomas [Bryant] 3 on the left wing, finally took the lead. After that we just started trying to get some stops and keep building our lead up from one to three to five, whatever the case may be, all the way up to seven at one point.”
One thing that has been proven time and again this season is that these Lakers will fight until the end. Regardless of who is available and on the court that night, the Lakers will give maximum effort. Oftentimes it hasn’t been quite enough to get the job done, but that wasn’t the case in Portland.
James simply continues to prove his greatness and even as the Lakers are without rotation players, he regularly sets the example and the rest follow. The Lakers still aren’t quite where they want to be as contenders, but the mindset is one that the franchise wants to continue, regardless of who is on the roster.
Patrick Beverley, Damian Lillard trade barbs on social media following Lakers win
Another subplot going on throughout Sunday’s contest was the back-and-forth between Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard and Lakers’ known agitator Patrick Beverley. With Lillard shooting just 5-of-17 on the night, Beverley wanted some credit for contributing to his shooting struggles.
Upon seeing the clip of Beverley’s postgame comments, Lillard responded on social media by comparing Beverley to a character from the 1994 basketball movie ‘Above The Rim.’ Beverley would then respond by noting how he had gotten under the skin of the All-Star.
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