The Portland Trail Blazers looked like they didn’t come out of the All-Star break until the second half Thursday night at home against the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Blazers played the first two quarters with a Tin Man-like coating of rust, falling behind by as many as 18. While they rallied to make a game of it in the second half, that slow start ultimately cost them in a 110-102 loss.
The eternal LeBron James stuck the knife in Portland, going for 40 points and eight rebounds. Elite foul grifter Austin Reaves added 12 free throws on his way to 32 points. And a nauseating, predominantly LA crowd left the Moda Center thrilled by the result, even without the treat of seeing new superstar attraction Luka Doncic, who was out for injury management.
“I didn’t think our focus was great,” Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups said. “I thought we were really rusty in that first half. Shoot, we couldn’t make a free throw.”
The Blazers scored just 15 points and turned the ball over six times in the first quarter, part of nine first-half TOs. Portland shot 10-16 from the free throw line in the first half, which looks semi-okay until you realize five of those six misses came from Anfernee Simons (2-5) and Jerami Grant (0-2), who both shoot over 85% from the stripe on the season. The play on the court just looked ugly. Then you looked around the stands and saw all the purple/gold and LeBron/Bronny jerseys and it felt uglier.
When asked if rust played a factor in the difficult start, Portland forward Deni Avdija said “100%.” He said the team had two good practices leading up to Thursday, but jumping back into game play presents a different challenge. Still, Avdija said rust isn’t a valid excuse, a sentiment echoed by Portland forward Toumani Camara.
“We can use [rust] as an excuse, but it’s a job at the end of the day, so we need to come prepared for that,” Camara said.
To Camara and Avdija’s credit, the duo was the primary force in helping Portland break through the malaise. While Grant (1-12 on FGs, three points) and Simons (3-13 on FGs, eight points) never emerged from their shooting slumps, Avdija led Portland with 28 points on 9-14 shooting, five assists and four rebounds. During a 12-2 third-quarter run that got Portland within two, Avdija accounted for all 12 points.
Camara produced 19 points on 7-8 shooting and seven rebounds, while grabbing five steals. His hounding was a big reason Portland recorded 16 steals and forced James into a career-high 11 turnovers. James also joined Camara’s list of victims who were baited into an off-ball offensive foul by his pestering. The NBA’s all-time leading scorer is the most prestigious name to join the ever-growing list, demonstrating Camara’s tactics work even against the mightiest of star power.
“We were looking to find traps and deflections and really make his job hard tonight,” Camara said about the gameplan for James. “But we turned it up a little too late for him.”
With Camara and Avdija leading the charge, the Blazers got easy buckets in transition and fought back to tie the game at 81-81 near the start of the fourth quarter. But the Lakers met that resistance with a quick 8-0 run. Then they held off one final Portland surge in the final minutes to leave with a win.
“I feel like we woke up too late,” Camara said. “If I had to say anything about it, we woke up too late.”
Other Notes
— With Deandre Ayton out, Blazers rookie center Donovan Clingan got the starting nod against LA. He registered six points on 3-4 shooting, six rebounds, three blocks and a steal in 17 minutes. Backup center Robert Williams III played 25 minutes, producing eight points, six rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
Billups said he thought Clingan had some good moments, but he elected to go smaller at the center spot more because of some defensive slippage.
“I thought he lost his focus on some of the things that we wanted to do defensively,” Billups said. “He was one or two steps slow, which is why I decided to go small and just change it up. He, like all the rest of us, were a step slow on a lot of things defensively today.”
— Billups noted transition turnovers as a particular problem against LA. The Blazers turned the ball over four times in transition, all in the second half. The final TO seemed to extinguish Portland’s comeback chances. Trailing by four with 2:30 remaining, the Blazers pushed it on a 3-on-1 fast break. Simons tossed it to Grant, who ran Reaves over in the paint as he shot a layup. The play was ruled a charge.
“So many times our spacing is poor [in transition],” Billups said. “They’ve got three guys in particular that are really good charge-takers, and we see ‘em right there the whole time, three dribbles, and we just still run right into ‘em. That’s just focus … and knowing your personnel. We did that twice.”
