The Los Angeles Lakers were no match for the Portland Trail Blazers’ red-hot shooting on Monday night, falling on the road 127-115.
D’Angelo Russell knocked down the first bucket of the night for the Lakers off a pull-up jumper while Anthony Davis controlled the paint on the other end early. Defensively, Los Angeles did well to contest each Portland field goal attempt, allowing them to open up a 12-5 lead midway through the period.
The Trail Blazers were able to take a 17-16 lead after heating up from beyond the arc, going on a 12-2 run in the process. Portland remained hot from 3-point land as seemingly every one of their attempts went down including a deep one from Damian Lillard at the buzzer that left Los Angeles trailing 34-19. Portland closed the quarter on a 29-4 run after L.A. led by nine early.
Lillard picked up where he left off in the first quarter, going on a personal 7-0 run early in the second that forced a Lakers timeout. Davis tried his best to get L.A. back on track by scoring near the rim, but they had no answers for the Portland offense that kept on humming.
Meanwhile, The Lakers’ offense struggled to get anything to go in the half-court, though a couple of midrange jumpers from Rui Hachimura and Russell stopped the bleeding. Los Angeles started to show signs of life at the end of the quarter, but with no answer for Lillard, they went into the locker room trailing 65-46. Lillard alone hit eight 3-pointers in the first half while the Trail Blazers as a team went 17-of-29 from deep compared to just three made triples for L.A.
Portland did not cool off during the break as their offense kept getting the looks it wanted while Los Angeles searched for a spark on the other end. Even when the Lakers did see shots go down, players like Matisse Thybulle would make them pay on the other end and effectively keep them at bay.
The two teams began to trade baskets, though this didn’t help the Lakers who found themselves trailing by more than 20. Malik Beasley was finally able to knock down his first 3-pointer as a Laker, but they went into the fourth quarter down 101-79.
Beasley tried to give the purple and gold a spark with another 3 and a steal, but Portland quickly responded to push their lead to 25. No matter what the Lakers tried, they couldn’t get over the hump and they would back to Los Angeles with another loss under their belt.
Lillard would finish with 40 points while the Trail Blazers as a whole shot more than 50% from 3 before garbage time. One of the only positives for the Lakers was Malik Beasley getting hot late, which will hopefully carry over into the next game.
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