The Los Angeles Lakers are going through a rough stretch of their schedule, playing five games in seven nights. That continued on Saturday night when they traveled to take on the Portland Trail Blazers in the first night of a back-to-back.
Part of what has made this stretch so tough is the injuries the team is dealing with and that was again the case in this one with Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, Deandre Ayton and Jaxson Hayes among those out. As a result, the Lakers suffered their fifth loss in their last six games, falling 132-116.
With both of the Lakers’ centers out, Maxi Kleber got a rare start and actually had nine quick points to give his team an early lead. Drew Timme then came of the bench and picked up where Kleber left off with seven points of his own.
The Lakers were struggling to keep the Trail Blazers off the free throw line as they committed 13 fouls in the first quarter, leading to 22 free throws. After a strong close to the first quarter by Portland, they led 40-27.
With LeBron James struggling from the field, Marcus Smart, Timme and Kleber continued to carry the load offensively as the Lakers began to cut into the deficit.
James eventually got going with seven straight points for L.A., but the Trail Blazers beat the halftime buzzer with an alley-oop to get the lead back to double digits at 71-61.
Smart’s hot shooting continued to start the third quarter with him hitting three triples, but the Lakers were struggling to get stops and keep the Blazers off the free throw line.
The game started to get away from L.A. at that point with Portland catching fire from deep, extending the lead to 107-90 at the end of the third quarter. James made a layup to beat the buzzer and got hit across the head on the play, but ended up being OK.
No foul was called, so JJ Redick was given a technical foul for arguing in favor of his star as the Lakers’ frustration was clearly mounting.
Despite their disagreements with the officiating, L.A. tried to mount one last comeback and went on a 7-0 run to cut it to 11. That was immediately met with back-to-back triples by Portland, putting the final nail in the coffin.
What’s next for the Lakers…
It will be a short turnaround for the Lakers as they return to Los Angeles and host the Toronto Raptors in the second night of a back-to-back on Sunday.
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