LeBron-less Lakers end losing skid with victory over Blazers
LOS ANGELES — The Lakers returned from their four-game road trip, which they lost the final three games of, looking and sounding like a team in need of a stretch of time at home.
The Lakers are set to spend six days in Southern California, from Saturday to Thursday, leading up to their road game against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minneapolis on Friday. Given this schedule, it would have been easy for them to overlook their home game against the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday at Crypto.com Arena.
Especially when star forward LeBron James was ruled out because of left foot soreness, in addition to Austin Reaves missing his fifth consecutive game because of a bruised left pelvis.
But looking to bounce back from the sting of a gut-wrenching loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Friday, the Lakers (13-11) took care of business, beating the Blazers 107-98 to end their three-game losing streak.
“Next man up,” Anthony Davis said. “That’s why we have a team. Other guys had to step up. Guys know have to step up when we have a guy like Bron out. Guys took on a challenge and, even though it was a last-minute scratch this is what guys prepared for and guys got a chance.
“Some guys got a chance to come in and play in a little bit more minutes than they probably normally would, and they did what they were supposed to do.”
Davis led the Lakers, who lost seven of their previous nine games entering Sunday, with 30 points and 11 rebounds.
D’Angelo Russell stepped up off the bench in light of James’ absence, finishing with season-highs of 28 points, 14 assists, nine made field and five made 3-pointers to go along with five rebounds in 34 minutes.
Russell had 13 points and six assists in the fourth, a quarter the Lakers entered with a 77-74 lead after the Blazers (8-16), who are on a four-game losing streak and have lost eight of their last 10 games, finished the third on an 11-2 run.
The 10th-year guard, who declined to speak with reporters postgame, opened the quarter by assisting Rui Hachimura (season-high 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting) on a pair of layups, sandwiched around Russell’s floater, to give the Lakers an 83-76 lead early in the fourth.
Russell hit a trio of stepback 3-pointers, assisting Christian Kololo on a dunk and Cam Reddish on a 3, to put the Lakers up 97-81 with 7:14 left in the game.
The Lakers led 107-88 before both teams pulled their main rotation players.
The Blazers closed the game on an 11-0 run with both team’s end-of-bench players in the game.
The Lakers finished with 14 steals and forced 17 turnovers, resulting in 26 points. Hachimura led the team with four steals, while Gabe Vincent had three and Reddish had two.
“I was just trying to be aggressive,” Hachimura said. “Especially defensively, we have been traveling, but [Sunday] I think we were playing more with Gabe [Vincent], Cam, Max [Christie], it made it easier to kind of be more aggressive because I can trust them. They’re always making plays defensively.”
Portland was led by Shaedon Sharpe’s 19 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
The Lakers will take the next couple of days off before returning to the practice floor on Wednesday.
“We haven’t had a ton of practice time, but the reality is we’re banged up,” Redick said. “Even the guys that are playing every night are banged up. [Sunday] is the end of a very long two-week road trip. We’ve already had an 11-day road trip. Travel has been tough. I would’ve liked to practice [more] but you do have to look at these opportunities, and they’re very rare, to give you guys two days off.”