LOS ANGELES -- The Trail Blazers finished up a four-game trip with a 99-94 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena.
“I thought the effort was good,” said Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups. “They got off to a pretty good start. They hit us in the mouth early. I thought we did good job fighting back and staying with it. We got some good looks, couldn’t knock them down. It just didn’t go our way.”
Portland is now 21-31 overall, 7-18 on the road and 0-2 versus the Lakers this season, with both losses coming in Los Angeles. With the loss, Portland finishes a four-game road trip 1-3 and have dropped five of their last six.
“Not a good (trip) for us,” said Norman Powell. “So, got to tighten up when we get home, we have a nice homestand, get back to our beds, get back, settle, figure it out and hopefully pick up some much needed wins on the home floor.”
Though neither team played all that well Wednesday night, the Blazers had an especially rough go of it in the first quarter. They started 3-of-12 from the field and 0-of-5 from three for just eight points in the first seven minutes of play. It didn’t improve much, if at all, with the Lakers taking a 28-16 lead into the second quarter.
But after shooting 0-of-8 from three in the first quarter, Portland outscored Los Angeles by 11 in the second quarter thanks almost entirely to shooting 8-of-13 from three. Behind that shooting, and turning five Lakers turnovers into eight points, Portland went into the half trailing by just a single point.
“I thought we did a good job penetrating, not settling,” said Billups. “I thought we settled a lot in the first quarter. I felt like if we were just patient offensively and we worked harder to get good shots we would be able to get good shots. I thought the second quarter we did that. We gave ourselves a chance, we got back in the game.”
Portland would take their first lead of the game on the first possession of the third quarter, and from there on, neither team would hold more than a six-point advantage for the rest of the game.
The Blazers took a three-point lead into the fourth, though Stanley Johnson and Carmelo Anthony scored the first four points of the quarter to reclaim the lead. Portland would then go over five minutes without scoring, and were it not for Norman Powell scoring eight-straight points, the game would have effectively been over rather than tied at 89-89 with 2:44 to play.
But Anthony Davis scored the next six points while Portland went another two minutes without scoring. In a game where neither team had much going, that would be enough to tilt the scales in L.A.’s favor.
“I think we had 11 turnovers in the second half,” said Billups. “We had some really big moments, we just couldn’t get over the hump. Missed shot here, turnover here. Obviously (Anthony Davis) was tough to control. (Carmelo Anthony) had a huge night. We just couldn’t get over the hump.”
Powell scored 10 points in the fourth quarter and shot 50 percent for the game to finish with a team-high 30 points, five rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal in 40 minutes.
Jusuf Nurkic posted a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds while also logging four assists, a steal and a block in 36 minutes. Simons finished with 19 points, three assists, two rebounds and a steal in 36 minutes.
CJ McCollum went for 15 points, eight rebounds and three assists. And while he went 0-of-8 from the field, Robert Covington handed out a career-best nine assists and grabbed 13 rebounds in 36 minutes.
Anthony Davis posted 30 points and 15 rebounds in 37 minutes for the Lakers.
After spending 18 of the last 21 days on the road, the Trail Blazers now return to Portland to play a stretch of five home games over 10 days starting with a rematch versus the Thunder Friday night at Moda Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.