Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Takeaways from loss to Trail Blazers
By Ronald Agers
LeBron does well
Well it depends on what you wanted out of LeBron James because he was all over the spectrum in the game. If you want excitement? We have it all for you…
https://twitter.com/Dom_2k/status/1053150173449334784
I’ve had courtside seats to watch the Lakers play. The caption is on point for anyone who has not been to a game in those seats. Heaven folks heaven…oh wait a minute let me do my job…
These were back to back dunks. The Lakers were eventually up ten and it really looked like…
A) The Lakers were going to run the Blazers out of the gym and…
B) LeBron James was on his way to EASILY scoring 40 points! Twitter blew up with all of this playoff talk! I can’t even lie, even I got excited on jumped online with a deadline to meet.
Only one problem…this all happened in the first quarter. By the end of the first stanza, the Lakers were behind.
Oh make that two…can we get some of this in crunch time?
This is what I mean…
While LeBron was flying through the air dunking the ball in the first quarter sending the NBA world in a frenzy, the stars for Portland, Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum were struggling. Overall Damian Lillard played a terrible floor game while Brandon Ingram had McCollum locked up with his length.
That is until the last eight minutes of the game.
Lonzo Ball dropped a three to cut the Blazers lead to 101-100. This is what Magic Johnson called winning time.
Only McCollum and Lillard had their Rolex’s on. They both combined to set off a 18-6 Portland run to put the game out of reach. They both combined to score 20 points in the 4th to lead the Blazers to victory. Anybody remember anything of note from James at this time? That’s the issue here.
This is what the Lakers need from James. If he is the best player on the court, the last eight minutes is when he has to impose his will and lead his team to victory. He has to be as dominant or more so at THIS time in the game. This game was winnable but a scenario that Lakers fans need to watch throughout the season occurred. LeBron James played well enough to fill stat sheets, but not well enough to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to victory.