Lakers fall to Blazers in a must-win matchup.
The Lakers dropped their second straight game in arguably the biggest game of the remaining games left in the regular season. Tonight’s 106–101 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers had a playoff atmosphere competitiveness, with both teams battling to break up a series tie and get the advantage over each other to avoid the playoff play-in spot. With tonight’s loss to the Blazers, the Lakers record moves to 37–30, bringing them to 30 losses on the season and dropping them to the 7th seed play-in spot in the West.
The Blazers’ big win came from their all-star centerpieces Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, who both had huge performances combining for 59 points. In 39 minutes, Lillard finished with a game-high 38 points on 12 of 18 (66.6%) shooting from the field and 5 for 9 (55%) from deep. McCollum had 21 points on 7 of 19 (36.8%) total shooting in his 38 minutes of action.
Despite tonight’s costly loss, the Lakers had an upside come from Anthony Davis, who looked like himself tonight, dominating on both ends of the floor. Davis finished with a team-high 36 points, going 12 for 23 (52.1%) from the field and 2 for 3 (66.6%) from the perimeter. Davis also added 12 rebounds, 5 assists, and 1 block in his 39 minutes of action. Davis was asked how close he was to feel himself with the playoffs approaching saying:
“I feel good, put me on the floor, and I’m going to try and do as much as I can. I feel like I’m getting my legs back under me and I’m getting my rhythm.”
Lakers head coach Frank Vogel spoke on Anthony Davis’ performance tonight saying: “This is the best game since he returned for sure, he had a terrific performance tonight.” Vogel also gave his takeaways from tonight’s loss praising the team saying: “Very proud of how our guys competed and had an opportunity to pull off a very difficult win.”
With the Lakers being without almost all their point guards, they had to look for Alex Caruso to take up a bulk of the minutes at the quarterback position of the offense, with Caruso finishing with a season-high 34 minutes in tonight’s short-handed loss.
In his more than usual playing time, Caruso finished with a season-high 18 points on 8 of 16 (50%) shooting from the field. Caruso also added 6 rebounds and 2 assists, giving the Lakers some great possessions and questionable ones. Caruso had a miscommunication during the final minute of tonight’s loss, fouling Damian Lillard with the Lakers down by three and 27 seconds left on the game clock. Caruso spoke on how upset he was with himself on that mishap late in the game describing it as disappointment in himself.
The Lakers were so depleted at the point guard in tonight’s matchup that they had to put center Marc Gasol at the point guard position. Gasol did admirably well in his time at the position, giving Caruso a chance of rest on the bench as he played 34 minutes tonight. Gasol had 6 points and 4 rebounds while adding 1 block and 2 steals in his 22 minutes of playing time.
With the Lakers plagued with injuries, the team has had to look to their role players to take action and provide a scoring spark. One of those players is Kyle Kuzma, who came off a 19 shot attempted night in yesterday’s loss to the Clippers. In tonight’s defeat, Kyle Kuzma had one of his worst performances of the season come at the worst time for the Lakers. In his 33 minutes of action, Kuzma finished with only 4 points on 2 of 11 (18.1%) shooting from the field and a 0 for 6 (0%) shooting night from the three-point arc. Kuzma had a huge opportunity to tie the game in the final minute after a huge block from Anthony Davis.
The Lakers’ chance to avoid the play-in spot just got even slimmer after tonight’s loss to the Blazers. The Lakers stand in the 7th seed, with every single remaining game left in the season being a must-win. The Lakers will travel back home to face the 2nd seed 48–19 Phoenix Suns in a must-win matchup. Look for the return of LeBron James next Tuesday against the New York Knicks and Houston Rockets in the Lakers’ second-to-last back-to-back matchup of this season.