In what feels like déjà vu, the Lakers are coming off another stunning loss to Oklahoma City, following the Thunder’s 19-point comeback victory Thursday night. Los Angeles (5-4) will face a big road test as they take on the Portland Trail Blazers (4-5) at Moda Center. Pregame show will begin at 6:30 p.m. PT and tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. PT on Spectrum SportsNet.
Here are three things to know before the night’s contest:
A COURT WITHOUT ITS KING
Since LeBron joined the Lakers in 2018-19, James has missed a total of 58 games over the course of his four seasons in Los Angeles. Overall, the Lakers are 23-35 when the King is in street clothes sitting on the bench.
The Lake Show will be without their superstar for at least a week due to an abdominal strain and although there may be some reason to panic, the Lakers have a veteran lineup that displays how much depth the team has. Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony have shown the most consistency with or without LeBron in the lineup.
Austin Reaves continues to make the most of his minutes with his ability to play two-way ball and Avery Bradley’s strong defensive game fills a void.
While it may be a tough stretch without their leader, Los Angeles has more than enough weapons to win games.
The depth grew by one last game when Wayne Ellington made his season debut on Thursday after he had been sidelined with a lingering hamstring injury.
One factor to consider will be the status of Davis, who is dealing with a sprained thumb from Thursday’s game. In Friday’s media availability, coach Frank Vogel said Davis is listed as questionable and will have to see how he feels prior to the game.
TWO-WAY GOES A LONG WAY
Both teams enter tonight’s game ranked in the top ten in:
-Points (LAL: 112.3 [6th] / POR: 110.9 [9th])
-Field-Goal Percentage (LAL: 47.4 [2nd] / POR: 46.0 [10th])
-Three-Point Percentage (LAL: 36.9 [7th] / POR: 36.2 [8th])
Both teams have scored under 100 points in just one game each so far this season, but have allowed their opponents to score, on average, over 109+ points.
That’s where the difference could come down to who has the better defensive outing. The Lakers sit middle of the league with a defensive rating of 107.5 while the Trail Blazers are near the bottom of the pack with their defensive rating at 110.0
After Thursday’s second half collapse, Anthony Davis commented on what went wrong and how the Thunder flipped the game.
“Defensively we were all over the place,” Davis said. “[OKC] knew what we were doing and they made adjustments to put their players in the right spot. They made shots and Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander] made us pay when we tried to double-team him.”
Coach Vogel added that the team has, ‘big-picture patience, and small-picture sense of urgency,’ knowing that being perfect and winning games right now is the goal but learning from mistakes and making the most of film sessions is vital to the team’s progression.
DAME VS BRODIE
The two superstar point guards will face off for the 30th time in the regular season tonight, with Lillard holding a head-to-head record of 15-14 (Lillard also holds a 4-1 record over Westbrook in their one playoff meeting). In the five major stat lines, Westbrook holds a better average in every category except steals and blocks.
For reference:
-Westbrook has averaged, 28.4 PTS, 7.9 REB, 8.7 AST, 1.3 STL, and 0.4 BLK
-Lillard has averaged, 25.9 PTS, 4.4 REB, 7.2 AST, 1.4 STL, and 0.4 BLK
Last season, Portland defeated Washington 132-121 in the first game and the Wizards beat the Trail Blazers 118-111 in the second meeting.
Lillard has struggled early in the new season, averaging under 20 points/game and is shooting 35.3 FG% and 23.4 3P%. Lillard started his season similarly last year, seemingly struggling near the beginning, while CJ McCollum stepped up and took over.
Despite that, Dame has always played consistently well against the Lakers. In 30 regular season games, he’s scored at least 26+ points in half of those meetings and has a win in 21 of those 30.