Portland Trail Blazers at Los Angeles Lakers, December 28: Loss
The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the NBA Playoffs after many said that the Blazers would give the Lakers a really tough series and could beat them. Damian Lillard and co. will get their revenge over three months later, at least in one regular-season game.
The Blazers made a really good move this offseason in trading two first-round picks for Robert Covington. Covington is one of the best two-way wings in the league and is going to give the Blazers that wing defense that they so desperately need.
A closing lineup of Lillard, CJ McCollum, Derrick Jones Jr, Covington and Jusuf Nurkic is really good. Not to mention that they have great depth in Gary Trent Jr, Rodney Hood, Zach Collins, Carmelo Anthony and Enes Kanter.
That is a rotation that is built for the playoffs and they are going to send a message in this game. However, the message might not be as strong, as this is the second leg of a back-to-back before hitting the road for the Lakers, so realistically, I would not expect LeBron to even be playing in this game.
Los Angeles Lakers at San Antonio Spurs, December 30: Win
The Los Angeles Lakers finish the 2020 calendar year with a win against a San Antonio Spurs team that, quite frankly, is not very good. The Lakers have back-to-back road games in San Antonio that will allow them to further inflate their record to set the tone early for the rest of the Western Conference.
That gives the Lakers a 4-1 record heading into the 2021 calendar year. This would actually match the Lakers’ start last season, as they dropped the first game of the season to the Clippers before rattling off seven wins in a row.
This should be enough to build some momentum for the Lakers as their January schedule starts really easy. They get the Spurs, the Memphis Grizzlies twice, the Spurs again, the Chicago Bulls, the Houston Rockets twice and the Oklahoma City Thunder.