After blowing a 19-point lead and losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Los Angeles Lakers had another spineless loss to the Portland Trail Blazers Saturday.
LeBron James is out for the week with an abdominal strain, so Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook needed to carry the load; they could not.
L.A. ruled out Davis with a stomach illness after seven first-quarter minutes, but Portland had already started running away with the game at that point; that exemplified how horrible L.A. played.
Portland outscored L.A. 36-14 after one quarter, but the Lakers slowed the pace and ran more stable half-court sets in the second and won the quarter, 22-15.
However, the Lakers came out of halftime with no energy, leading to an 18-4 run for Portland that put the lead well over 30, effectively sealing the outcome by the fourth quarter. L.A. won the quarter 28-12, but a comeback wasn’t possible.
Here’s how the Lakers graded individually:
