Los Angeles Lakers snap 16-game losing streak vs the Trail Blazers

The Los Angeles Lakers went into Portland on Saturday night hoping to snap their 16-game losing streak against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Going into Saturday’s matchup against the Portland Trailblazers, history was not on the Los Angeles Lakers side.

They had lost their last 16 games against the Blazers and looked to change that going into their second matchup of the season.

Going into the matchup, head coach Luke Walton was in hot water as it was recently reported that he had a meeting with Magic Johnson discussing the Lakers poor start to the season. I’m sure Laker Nation was paying close attention to how Luke performed in this game.

In the first quarter, the Lakers opened up the game with a 3-pointer by Kyle Kuzma.

As usual, the Lakers got off to a good start on offense and jumped out to an early 10-5 lead.

The offense looked smooth and the Lakers were moving the ball around beautifully.

Unfortunately, things quickly took a turn for the worst as the Lakers started to collapse on defense.

They were giving up way too many points in the paint, and for some reason, their perimeter defense has been awful all season long.

It didn’t help that the Lakers were getting beat off the pick & roll almost every single time, and once that happened they would constantly lose their man and in return gave up multiple 3-point shots.

LeBron James went 2-for-4 from the field with five points in the first quarter. Lonzo Ball also knocked down a 3-pointer early in the game.

The Lakers managed to get back on track once the second unit came on. They ended the 1st quarter down by only one thanks to another last-second shot by Lance Stephenson to end the quarter.

Early on in the second quarter, the Lakers tightened up their defense and managed to keep the game close early.

A couple of quick buckets by Kyle Kuzma sparked a little run and the Lakers seemed to be in control.

Kuzma finished the game with 12 points and six rebounds.

However, towards the middle of the quarter, the Lakers started to revert back to turning the ball over.

Ivica Zubac was doing a horrible job guarding the paint and was just giving away multiple uncontested dunks and layups.

Hopefully, with the Lakers recent announcement of their impending signing of Tyson Chandler, he will be able to give the Lakers a better paint presence down low for the second unit.

Luke Walton was doing a good job with the rotations, but turnovers were frequent in the second quarter as the Lakers had 10 in the first 24 minutes of the contest.

Sparked by JaVale McGee and his tenacity on the defensive end blocking shots left and right, the Lakers managed to pull within 1 going into the second half.

In the 3rd quarter, the Lakers started off hot bursting into an early 11-2 run.

The Lakers stepped up their defensive tenacity and JaVale McGee was just swallowing any and every shot that Portland brought into the paint. McGee had five blocks through the first three quarters.

Offensively, though, Brandon Ingram was invisible for the most part as he only had six points in the first three periods and only finished with eight points for the game.

I’ve noticed that whenever Brandon Ingram struggles early on, he tends to drift off for the rest of the game and gets disengaged from the offense.

It didn’t matter though as the Lakers played excellent defense and were able to end the quarter on a 16-2 run.

In the final period, the Lakers rocketed out to an early 20 point lead. Rajon Rondo continued his stellar play into the 4th quarter even with five fouls. Rondo finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

Surprisingly, Lonzo Ball only played 19 minutes and sat for the entire 4th quarter with only three points, hitting just one shot.

However, that 20-point lead quickly vanished late in the game as the lead was cut to six with 3:34 left in the quarter.

Lebron scored back-to-back buckets with two minutes left as the Lakers took control momentarily.

Damian Lillard then drove to the basket but was denied by McGee as the ball then fell into Jusuf Nurkic‘s hands but was also blocked by Lebron.

LeBron then made a pass on a drive to the basket to McGee who then preceded to lay the ball up behind his head to seal the win for the Lakers as it was a free throw game the rest of the way.

The Lakers desperately needed this win and they managed to get it.

Lonzo Ball had another lackluster performance as he continued his inconsistent play as he seems to just sometimes play with no heart or intensity. I want to believe in him but right now I truly feel they should go back to Rondo as the starting point guard.

Brandon Ingram didn’t do so well either. As I said before he seems to lose his confidence whenever his shot is not falling early.

This was a nice win, but I definitely feel that the young kids need to step up their play if the Lakers want to have long-term success.

We know what Lebron can do, but we need to see which one of the young guys can take their game to the next level and so far none of them have really separated themselves from the rest.

But look at the bright side.

Luke Walton did a good job at game management and has lived to coach another day.