After a rough road trip in which they lost three out of four games, the Los Angeles Lakers returned home and hosted the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday night.
The Lakers were in dire need of na win before getting a few days off and the Trail Blazers matchup presented them with a prime opportunity to get one, although both LeBron James and Austin Reaves were unable to play due to injuries. The Lakers were still able to take care of business though, coming away with a 107-98 victory at Crypto.com Arena.
Anthony Davis had the first bucket of the night but the Trail Blazers otherwise got off to a hot 12-6 start after a pair of triples. Davis responded from there though with three straight made shots to tie it at 12.
The Lakers offense went cold from there though as everyone outside of Davis struggled to make shots, resulting in the Trail Blazers taking a 28-22 lead at the end of the first. Davis had 14 of his team’s 22 points.
With so many guys out, Lakers two-way rookie made his season debut and the first bucket of his young career with a 3-pointer to start the second quarter. That started a Lakers run as Rui Hachimura got hot from deep to regain the lead.
Hachimura then went into attack mode and scored at the rim a few times to build on that lead. After a 3-point barrage to close the half with D’Angelo Russell, Max Christie and Gave Vincent all connecting from deep, L.A. went into the locker room with a 59-45 lead.
All the work the Lakers did to build that lead was for naught as Portland began the third quarter on a 9-0 run. It took L.A. almost five minutes to score with Davis ending the drought with a layup.
The Lakers got back on track from there with Dalton Knecht scoring inside and Russell from deep to get the lead back to double digits. They then had another mental lapse to end the quarter though, allowing a Blazers run that was capped off by Scoot Henderson hitting a halfcourt shot at the buzzer to cut their deficit to 77-74 through three.
L.A. needed a strong start to the fourth quarter to regain control and that’s exactly what they got as Russell was running the offense to perfection. He hit a pair of deep 3s and then found Cam Reddish for another to go up 16. Hachimura then hit another triple of his own to put the game on ice.
What’s next for the Lakers
After not making the knockout rounds of the Emirates NBA Cup, the Lakers will now get a little break before they travel to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night.
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