LeBron James makes up embarrassing play as Lakers take care of Blazers

The Los Angeles Lakers found themselves in a dire, much-win situation on Wednesday night, playing the Portland Trail Blazers at home. After blowing a 17-point lead in the final ten minutes against the Indiana Pacers, it was imperative that the Lakers regain some sort of momentum before their extended road trip against teams above .500.

Why is that mentioned? Coming into this game, the Los Angeles Lakers have a record of 2-12 against teams with above .500 records. The Blazers would be a good team to start a winning trend.

The staff of Lake Show Life wants to know if any Lakers fans saw this movie as of late?

Russell Westbrook had the arena rocking again with the second of his buzzer beaters in back-to-back quarters to give the Lakers a double-digit lead going into the final quarter.

Only this time, the Lakers did not fall asleep at the wheel and closed out the Trail Blazers, 128-109, without their star, Damian Lillard. The next game is on the road against the Milwaukee Bucks on the road.

There’s a rumor that Giannis Antetokounmpo is a pretty good player. Might want to watch out for him.

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

Austin Reaves finally jumpstarted the Lakers’ offense in the first quarter!

Let’s be clear here. The Los Angeles Lakers were absolutely terrible at the offensive end to start. After falling behind 17-6, the Lake Show went on an 11-0 run to tie the game thanks to Austin Reaves getting the offense started by getting to the free throw line and putting up some points. Then there was this…

Breaking news to Lake Show Life! Austin Reaves missed two free throws! To put this in perspective, the man is third in the NBA in free throw shooting coming into the game at 93 percent!

He scored 22 points and added 5 rebounds (2 offensive!) with 3 assists.

The entire second quarter for both teams.

After a first quarter when both teams were playing a little ragged, the second quarter illustrated why NBA basketball is the best collection of talent in the world. There were dunks, 3-point shots and buzzer-beaters.

All told, both teams combined for 82 points. Russ ended the festivities with a last-second shot from beyond the arc to send things into halftime. For a second, this writer forgot to cover the game and became a fan in awe of the wonderful play.

It’s time to start a dialogue on why Thomas Bryant doesn’t get consistent minutes!

This Lakers team needs players that will get on the floor and give maximum effort every second they are on the floor. Instead of chasing deals that won’t (Or can’t!) happen because of limited options, try looking down the roster for players that look like they actually care. Thomas Bryant is one of those guys.

He finished with 14 points on 6-9 shooting with 6 rebounds and 3 assists. This yo-yo minutes trend needs to stop.

Look the Lakers didn’t blow a lead late…  

It’s sad this statement needs to be included, but here we are.

The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

Jerami Grant is still hot!

After being knocked around the NBA for the last few seasons, Jerami Grant has found a home in Portland. Remember this is the guy that blew past LeBron James for a layup to steal a game earlier this season. But right now with Damian Lillard out of the lineup, this dude is wrecking shop in the NBA.

• He handed the New York Knicks 44 points last Friday.
• Then he took another bite of the Big Apple dropping 29 on the Brooklyn Nets.
• The night before, Grant was killing the Los Angeles Clippers pouring 32 points on their head before fouling out!

We might be looking at the NBA’s Most Improved Player award winner this season if this keeps up. He had 17 points in 18 minutes in the first half of this one. He’s balling folks. He’s one of the main reasons the Blazers are above .500 at this point.

He finished with 27 points.

The Los Angeles Lakers need some work on clearing the defensive boards. 

Anyone that wants to debate this point can go back to the last seconds of the Indiana game. It really didn’t hurt the Lakers in this one, but here’s more evidence.

Patrick Beverley started!

This dude needs to be on the bench when Lonnie Walker IV comes back. This is ridiculous! What’s Darvin Ham gonna do? Bench Austin Reaves again!!??

The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

LeBron James was embarrassed and took this game personally and brought Anthony Davis with him!  

Let’s go back to an analysis quote from the previous game with the Indiana Pacers on Monday night...

"LeBron James and Anthony Davis FINALLY dominated at the same time and in the same game!Over the last couple of seasons after the championship in the bubble, Lakers fans have seen too many times that Anthony Davis and LeBron James can take over a game by themselves. But what the staff and readers of Lake Show Life want to see is the duo dominate at the same time. For the first time this season, it happened in the first half with spectacular results.But this domination was in the first half and NOT in crunch time."

In this game, LeBron James looked focused. Sure, he scored 31 points with 8 assists and 7 rebounds, but this was in the realm of the offense. He passed the ball around instead of dribbling the air out of it firing up 30-footers late in the shot clock or turning the ball over.

This is about the sense of urgency and it was seen when he was dealing with Anthony Davis. In the first half, LeBron chastised AD on a missed defensive rotation and a missed dunk after being fouled in the second half.

More importantly, Anthony Davis got into the offense late in the game and scored important baskets. Does this matter?

Lakers fans will be incredibly disappointed with latest illogical trade rumor

The latest Los Angeles Lakers trade rumor is so illogical that it is actually disappointing. Hopefully, it does not come to fruition.

We’ll see Friday against an NBA elite team in the Bucks.