The Los Angeles Lakers were able to get a win over against the Portland Trail Blazers. Here are three lessons from the win.
The Los Angeles Lakers were facing a must win game on Saturday night against the Portland Trail Blazers. Anyone that thinks this wasn’t the case is either delusional or has been under a rock for the last 24 to 48 hours. After Magic Johnson’s “chiding” of Luke Walton’s job performance, all eyes was on the Lakers to see how they would perform with the distractions going on.
Well they did win. Problem is, they won the same way they usually do…
Barely.
With the help of Rajon Rondo and the rest of the bench crew, who was outscored by LeBron James by himself on Wednesday, helped hold off Portland 114-110. The win stopped a losing streak of 16 games in Portland! Let’s put this in perspective, LeBron James was still in MIAMI the last time the Lakers beat the Blazers in Portland.
Cue Pharrell’s song “Happy” because that was the number one song in America the last time the Lakers beat Portland on the road. Fun fact…Magic Johnson was in the music video.
Oh yeah…the game!
🎥 Lakers win in Portland, fueled by a 16-0 run in the second half pic.twitter.com/TNj0Eiatcp
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) November 4, 2018
This game was all about the bench who played outstanding after a subpar game against the Mavericks. Who would have thought that Ivica Zubac would come in and provide strong contributions with nine points and eight rebounds with four coming on the offensive end.
https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1058931018114060288
The bugaboo for the Lakers reared it’s ugly head yet again in the fourth quarter. The Lakers blew another big lead in the last frame. The Lakers were up 20 points in the fourth quarter before Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum tried to do a encore act of opening night slicing a huge chunk of the lead.
But a win is a win right? Here are my three lessons…