PORTLAND -- When you consider the trades the Portland Trail Blazers have executed in the last week, it’s evident that the franchise has already turned at least some of their attention to next season.
But regardless of lottery odds, you can never pass up a chance to beat the Lakers.
“It felt good to get a win, especially with who we playing against,” said Dennis Smith Jr. “We playing against the Lakers, there was a lot of yellow and purple in the arena tonight. They had a lot of fans, which is expected, and we came out and did what we supposed to do, held home court down. We deserved to win tonight.”
Despite having just nine players in uniform -- Portland has acquired nine players in the last week, though just one has played thus far -- the Trail Blazers managed to break a six-game losing streak by defeating the Lakers 107-105 in front of a sellout crowd of 19,393 Wednesday night at Moda Center.
“It was a great feeling, just to see everybody playing well, coming together and beating a good team,” said Anfernee Simons. “You can say what you want about them but you’ve always got a chance when you’ve got LeBron and AD on the team, so for us to come in and get a win is always big.”
The Trail Blazers are now 22-34 overall and 15-16 at home this season. Portland now sits in 11th place in the Western Conference, one game behind the Pelicans for 10th and a game and a half up on the Kings for 12th, with 26 games left to play in the 2021-22 season.
The Trail Blazers put in a solid effort in the first half, even though they went into the intermission trailing 54-47 to a Lakers team led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Shooting 44 percent from the field might have been good enough had they not gone an abysmal 1-of-13 from three, but even so, Portland managed to keep it close, never going down by more than nine in the first half.
But between an uptick in their shooting percentage -- they shot 51 percent from the field and 47 percent from three -- and turning 11 Lakers turnovers into 15 points in the second half, Portland managed to outscore a moribund Lakers squad by nine to come away with a somewhat improbable victory.
“It always feels good to win, and in the fashion in which we did it,” said Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups. “We just did it together. I came in at halftime I’m like ‘Man, that was a hell of a half.’ We couldn’t make a shot but we gave ourselves a chance by way of playing defense, cutting off the ball -- our constant movement was fantastic. I thought in the second half, Ant comes out and has a big half, we get a few guys that come up really big. I thought Justise’s defense all night was great, Dennis Smith’s contributions was incredible. Defensively, his pressure on the ball, six steals in the game, Justise gets four steals in the game, getting 15 as a team. That was big time.”
Anfernee Simons scored 25 of his 29 points in the second half while also delivering five assists in 38 minutes. Jusuf Nurkic, the only Trail Blazer who played Wednesday night who also started on Opening Night, went 8-of-11 from the field and 3-of-5 from the line for 19 points while grabbing 12 rebounds for the double-double.
Winslow, in his second game as a Trail Blazer since being acquired via trade from the Clippers, went 5-of-11 for 11 points to go with eight rebounds, four steals and three assists in 33 minutes.
Greg Brown III went 3-of-5 from the field and 4-of-4 from the line for 11 points and Dennis Smith Jr. was a terror on the defensive end, tallying six steals in addition to 11 assists and seven points in 22 minutes.
“They give me a long leash on the defensive end to go out and pressure the ball, to gamble a little bit,” said Smith. “I was able to make a couple of plays tonight and put us in position to score easy in transition.”
James led all scorers with 30 points to go with seven assists and seven rebounds in 36 minutes. Davis had 17 points, seven rebounds and six assists in nearly 41 minutes.
The Trail Blazers now have the next two days off before hosting the New York Knicks Saturday in their only trip to Moda Center this season. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.