LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Lakers (8-2) were down nine after the first quarter and down seven at halftime Friday night, and then Luka Doncic and one enormous third quarter fixed all of it. Doncic scored 53 points and the Lakers beat the Portland Trail Blazers (6-2) 124-118 at Crypto.com Arena in an Emirates NBA Cup game, Los Angeles’ fifth straight win.
Portland controlled the first half. The Trail Blazers led 29-20 after one quarter and 60-53 at halftime, shot 51.4% for the game, and made 19 three-pointers. It wasn’t enough, because the third quarter belonged to Los Angeles outright: the Lakers outscored Portland 34-15 in the period, turning a seven-point deficit into a 12-point lead, and Portland never got back in front. The Trail Blazers scored 43 points in the fourth quarter to make the finish interesting, but the hole from the third was too deep.
Doncic’s line explains the comeback: 53 points on 17-of-33 shooting, 14-of-18 at the free-throw line, with five rebounds and five assists in 38 minutes — and the Lakers were plus-16 with him on the floor. It is his sixth 40-point game of the season and his first 50-point game of it, and it pushed his total to 361 points in nine games. Austin Reaves added 25 points and four steals, and Walker Kessler had 16 points and 12 rebounds.
The strangest part of the game is that Portland was the cleaner team on paper. The Trail Blazers shot it better from the field and far better from three (44.2% to the Lakers’ 29.7%), and they passed it better, 29 assists to 17. The game was lost on the things that don’t show up in a shooting line: Portland turned the ball over 24 times to the Lakers’ 11, the Lakers came up with 15 steals, and Los Angeles owned the offensive glass 17-8 — extra possessions, again and again, for a team that took 93 shots to Portland’s 70. Both teams went to the line 37 times; the Lakers made 29 of theirs, Portland 27.
Damian Lillard and Deni Avdija scored 22 apiece for Portland — Avdija with 11 assists and nine rebounds to go with it — Toumani Camara added 18, and Donovan Clingan had 17 points and 11 rebounds. Avdija also turned it over eight times, the biggest share of the problem that undid the Trail Blazers’ night.
The Lakers take the five-game win streak on the road now: at the Detroit Pistons on Sunday, Nov. 8, at 3 p.m. MST on NBA TV, then at Atlanta on Monday and at Milwaukee on Wednesday before they come to Phoenix on Nov. 15.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.