Los Angeles Lakers steamrolled by Blazers as LeBron sits again

The Los Angeles Lakers looked to start a much-needed extended winning streak after beating the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night. Even though some celebrated the win, it did not keep the staff of Lake Show Life from criticizing some of the listless play (OR LACK THEREOF!) of the superstars.  Anthony Davis played another subpar game by his standards, and LeBron James sat out his second game in a row for foot soreness.

After this quote from the last post-game report, one would have thought this writer insulted LeBron’s mother and wife…

"Where’s LeBron James?This is not questioning injuries but LeBron missed the last game, missed this one and reportedly will miss the next one. What’s the issue here? The Lakers won this game but the schedule will not get any easier and time is running out. This team needs winning streaks…long ones!Now it’s winning time. See Kareem won an NBA title and Finals MVP for the Lakers at 38 years old. LeBron’s Lakers are sitting in the 13th spot in the conference.Which one is more important?"

Well, the readers came out in full force to defend the only NBA player that was booed at the Super Bowl on Sunday…

First, there was a news report sent secondhand by Diego Tito…Appreciate the info!

Diego Tito:

"About LeBron being out:“Some of the people I speak to around the team, let’s put it that way, were like, ‘What are we doing here, playing him 40 minutes again?’” Dave McMenamin relayed. “‘We’re going to run him into the ground?’ And it’s not the minutes necessarily. It’s the minutes while a player is dealing with something that’s been pervasive.”That’s the news from Brian Windhorst"

Then there’s the parting Westbrook shot…

"L8Show:C’mon Ron. No half empty here. That was a great road win. Warriors really thought they were getting that W, but this appears to be a new Lakers team. No 3rd quarter collapse. Even got it in a close game on the road. Team looks like they are more on the same page than they ever were with Westbrook."

This one was the best one…

McKinley Webb:

"The only thing I will say is that is always easy to speculate what a player’s motivations are when you are sitting thousands of miles away watching on the Boob tube…Not defending anyone…just the facts…It’s probably better to stick to the KNOWN facts instead of speculation…Not pointing ANYONE out specifically but when reporting or journalism comes to this, it lessens itself and becomes clickbait or tabloid fodder…Can we please report what we see on the floor instead of making things up out of thin air…Getting inside info and in depth reporting is great…it stands alone and doesn’t need embellishment to attract and hold readers…We’re better than this…"

Okay, let’s report what’s on the floor for the Los Angeles Lakers. Won’t be pretty.

The only mystery in this game was that the Portland Trail Blazers went nuclear on the Los Angeles Lakers a few weeks ago to the tune of a 71-46 halftime lead only to come back to win 121-112. Maybe the Lakers can mount another comeback right?

Well, there are some differences in this game. Oh, the Lakers got out to a big lead. Then the Blazers finished the first half with long-range bombs for a big lead.

But…

Patrick Beverley wasn’t around to get in Damian Lillard’s head…

https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1617357394316787712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1617357394316787712%7Ctwgr%5Ec8993afabd52b860983cad87e703118bf373614f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flakeshowlife.com%2F2023%2F01%2F22%2Flos-angeles-lakers-portland-despite-pat-bevs-antics%2F

…and Thomas Bryant wasn’t around to dominate the final quarter and take the life out of the Portland front line. Couple that with technology to remind the Blazers of the last debacle of falling asleep in the second half…

The Blazers ran all over the Los Angeles Lakers 127-115. After the Lakers went up 14-5, Portland went on a 3-point barrage which added up to a 26-5 run to end things. The only thing that delayed putting this report at halftime was the final stats and wondering if an NBA team could blow a huge lead to the same team twice in a row at home.

The game was over in the first quarter, don’t let the final score fool you.

The good of the Los Angeles Lakers loss:

Anthony Davis played hard-ish for the first 24 minutes.

AD came out on fire scoring the ball in the paint in the first quarter and was cleaning up the glass rebounding everything. He had 13 points and 13 rebounds at halftime.

He finished with 19 points and 20 rebounds for the game. Assuming we all passed basic math, it shows that he did not do much in the second half.

Austin Reaves has got heart man!

This man will be on every Damian Lillard highlight around the world, but who cares? This man really accepted a challenge of trying to guard a motivated superstar who was going to send a message to the Lakers. That alone gets respect.

The game ended:

Mama said there would be days like this.

The bad of the Los Angeles Lakers loss:

Damian Lillard has a very, very long memory! 

You just can’t embarrass superstars and the Lakers got a visual tutorial of the consequences. Man, Damian Lillard should get 25 to life for what he did to the Lake Show. He dropped 30 points on the Lakers…IN THE FIRST HALF!

Dame Time added up to 40 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. The man beat an NBA franchise by himself and put on a show doing it.

The Los Angeles Lakers 3-point defense!

The Blazers set a franchise record by hitting 17 shots from the land of the extra point in the first half. They finished with 23 for the game. Umm…need any more analysis.

The Los Angeles Lakers 3-point shooting!

Russ just…oh he got traded? So who do we blame now? Malik Beasley? The Lakers shot 12-37 from beyond the arc.

Rui Hachamora is playing soft…

The dude is skilled but he is not tough or aggressive. Film don’t lie!

Dennis Schroder…

Scored two more points than the writer did putting this report together and you the reader perusing it.

Lakers fans paid their cable bill to watch this…

The staff of Lake Show Life feels for the fans that are frustrated with this franchise. Most try to give out history lessons, but we deal in current events. Currently, this team stinks. Hopefully, for you guys, this team gives you something. Sadly, by our calculations, it will be more nights like this.

The story of the Los Angeles Lakers loss…

Oh, LeBron James will be back. See, he wants to play in the All-Star game.

Now there will be a debate ongoing for the rest of the season on how injured LeBron James is and it will be front and center AFTER the Lakers’ season is over. But for now, let’s check out NBA insider Chris Haynes.

The bottom line is this. LeBron James went on a media tour pressuring the Lakers to make moves to retool this roster. Something that this site saw coming what…about a month ago?

• LeBron James’ PR campaign officially begins in Lakers’ loss to Kings

It bears repeating. The man has not seen the floor in an NBA game since the players arrived. That’s it, nothing else to say. If the goal was to break the record fine, congratulations. If this is about winning, it’s safe to assume the Los Angeles Lakers are not going anywhere losing three games a week with LeBron James on the sidelines in street clothes.

But he will play on Wednesday against the Pelicans. Why? He wants that All-Star MVP trophy. Let’s see how that foot feels over the weekend. The message is clear from this writer.

Either join the party and help this team run a ten-game winning streak extended to 12 out of 15 games…

Or…

We will all see LeBron James on TV at the NBA Finals in June, only he won’t be in uniform but in the V.I.P. section watching with the rest of the Lakers fans…

Just like the Super Bowl.

Warriors-Gary Payton trade should inspire Lakers to bring back fan favorite

The Golden State Warriors righted a wrong and brought Gary Payton II back at the trade deadline. The Los Angeles Lakers can learn from that.