The Los Angeles Lakers hadn’t played well at all over the past few games. They had lost their last four games and were losers of five of their last six. But after Damian Lillard scored 24 points in the first half of Friday night’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers, the Lakers collectively did an amazing job of saying “enough” as the Blazers didn’t have enough firepower without stars CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic to match the Lakers.
LeBron James had 28 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists in the win while Dennis Schröder appeared to have a little rust but not enough to stop him from contributing to a win, as he finished with 22 points. While Schröder didn’t have the most efficient night, the positive effect he had on LeBron’s energy levels on both ends helped lead the Lakers to a win after falling behind early.
Damian Lillard had 35 points for the Blazers on Friday night to lead all scorers but had only 11 of those 35 in the 2nd half as the Lakers sold out to stop him. They forced Portland’s other players to make decisions and shots for the entire second half and they reaped the success by breaking their four-game losing streak.
