The Lakers had one of their most embarrassing losses this season against a Portland team that is in the process of rebuilding their roster. The Blazers recently traded away their star guard CJ McCollum to the New Orleans Pelicans and the franchise superstar, Damian Lillard is currently undergoing abdominal surgery and is out for the season. Despite that, the Lakers lost 105-107 to the Blazers.
The loss was a huge embarrassment as the Blazers have been mediocre throughout the season. As bad as the lakers have been they have usually won against bad teams like the blazers and mainly struggle against the better teams like the suns, warriors, bucks, etc. Lakers legend Magic Johnson tweeted after the game, ‘After the Lakers loss to Portland tonight, I’m speechless. No words can describe how I’m feeling.’. The loss comes after a controversial postgame from LeBron and Westbrook. Westbrook did not play due to tightness in his lower back.
After the loss to Milwaukee, LeBron was asked whether the Lakers could ever reach the level that the Bucks are at right now and the 4-time champion said no. Westbrook in his interview talked about how he told his teammates that he wished he could help them but it wasn’t his call to play at the end of games. The Triple double king also went on to say that he deserves to be in closing lineups due to how he has performed throughout his career, despite having an extremely mediocre season this year.
The Blazers were led to victory by their young guard Anfernee Simons who had 29 points and 5 assists along with the Bosnian beast, Jusuf Nurkic who had 19 points and 12 rebounds. The Lakers were led by LeBron who had a game-high 30 points along with 7 assists and 7 rebounds but had no help from his teammates. The second-highest scorer on the Lakers was Anthony Davis who had a measly 17 points. The power forward did have a very good defensive performance though, with 5 blocks and a steal but it wasn’t enough to help the Lakers win the game.
With the trade deadline approaching in a few hours, the Lakers’ only chance to dig themselves out of this situation is to somehow make trades that can help them in some way. The issue is they have no way to move Westbrook’s huge contract and the value of pieces like Talen Horton Tucker has gone down dramatically shutting off any possible trade scenario that could help the Lakers become better. The situation was created by the franchise as a whole. From the front office, the coaching staff, and the players. Unless they come together and devise a solution it is going to be a sad season for the Lakers and their fans.
