Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Lessons in Game 2 win over Portland Trail Blazers!
By Ronald Agers
The Los Angeles Lakers throttled the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 2.
The Los Angeles Lakers bounced back from Tuesday’s loss with a much-needed win in a dominant performance beating the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 2. Lake Show Life shows the much-needed adjustments the Lakers made in Game 2 in this edition of Lake Show Life Lessons!
Sometimes it’s games like these when the Lake Show Life staff wonders if the Los Angeles Lakers players and/or coaching staff reads these post-game reports. We are critical, tough and brutally honest. If the Lakers do not play hard, we make it plain with video analysis. The game one report is a fine example.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Lakers got outworked by a less talented Portland Trail Blazers with a superstar in Damian Lillard for a laundry list of reasons.
- The starting backcourt couldn’t hit a shot behind that colored semi-circle on the basketball court.
- The energy in the first and third quarters from the frontcourt was lackluster and the only player that tried (Dwight Howard) got in foul trouble.
- Anthony Davis and LeBron James just collected stats and did not dominate.
- Frank Vogel put on one of the worst coaching performances in the bubble. That includes scrimmages, seeding games and playoffs.
This performance led to a passionate discussion between the Inside the NBA crew especially Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley (Start at the 4:00 mark!)
Lake Show Life believes in analytics, but we don’t base our entire narratives and reports on them. Shaquille O’Neal stated that Anthony Davis needed to pick up the production from an average of about 26 points a game in the regular season to the high 20’s to low 30’s.
DOMINATE!
Well, now that we all see that this blueprint for success works, let’s see some consistency next. Saturday sounds like a good place to start. But In Game 2, the Lakers followed AD’s lead beating the brakes off the Trail Blazers 111-88 in a total team win where this team improved from the coaching staff down to J.R. Smith who scored 11 points.
Congratulations to Lakers Nation who got to taste a playoff win for the first time since May 18th, 2012. Back then the late great Lakers icon Kobe Bryant dropped 36 points in a 99-92 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder that featured Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden.
In other news, Kobe Bryant was a bad man back in those days!
The story of the night (Or series!) will not be the Los Angeles Lakers win, but the injury to Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard. He dislocated his left index finger in the third quarter trying to reach around AD for a steal.
X-rays were negative, but his status in his shooting zone moving forward is worth keeping an eye on. Damian Lillard might be joining the rest of the NBA players on Earth for the rest of the series. If that is the case and if the Lakers have woken up, Portland chances might have evaporated.
To the new Los Angeles Lakers fans that are checking us out for the first time, welcome to Lake Show Life Lessons. An extended post-game report with video analysis.
Over the next several pages we will provide highlights of certain players and coaches. Afterward, the comment section is loaded with knowledgeable fans adding their basketball knowledge. We usually start with the stars.
Let’s get to Lesson One!