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Lakers Highlights: LeBron 3-Point Barrage Helps LA Beat Blazers, Stay Perfect In Tournament

LA is now 7-6.
Alex Kirschenbaum|
Lakers Highlights: LeBron 3-Point Barrage Helps LA Beat Blazers, Stay Perfect In Tournament
Lakers Highlights: LeBron 3-Point Barrage Helps LA Beat Blazers, Stay Perfect In Tournament

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Los Angeles LakersPortland Trail Blazers

Your Los Angeles Lakers survived an at-times sloppy, turnover-heavy night at the Moda Center to vanquish the Portland Trail Blazers in a  107-95 road win. It was anything but smooth sailing. Los Angeles built and nearly blew a 16-point first half advantage.

A 16-6 opening LA run made it appear that things would be more or less a cakewalk for LA. The Lakers got cooking early, and LeBron James was feeling it, with aggressive paint defense leading to some frenetic fast breaking offense.

By the end of the quarter, James had already scored nine points, while powering the Lakers to a 30-23 advantage.

The single best moment of the half, however, happened when relatively unheralded new Los Angeles starter Taurean Prince turned defense into Steve Nashian offense:

These were some of the halcyon moments of the period. They wouldn't last.

Despite missing four core rotation players in Anfernee Simons, Scoot Henderson, Malcolm Brogdon and Robert Williams III, Portland remains a frisky young team, and capitalized on LA letting go of the gas a bit near the end of the half. After LA built up a 16-point edge, the Trail Blazers went on a quick 6-0 run to conclude the second quarter, narrowing the margin to a more manageable 60-50 Lakers lead.

Portland blitzed LA to the tune of a 23-8, five-minute run, starting in the final 1:05 of the second quarter, and running through the middle of the third, to get within a single point of the Lakers, 68-67, capped by a 25-foot triple from current starting point guard Skylar Mays, who was until quite recently a two-way player.

Frustrating free throw struggles from James and starting shooting guard Cam Reddish kept the game close for a bit.

A pair of James triples helped elevate LA to a more formidable (albeit still disappointingly close) seven-point lead. Here's the first.

Portland fought back a bit, but the second James triple put LA up 76-69, much to the delight of the attendant... Portland fans.

Los Angeles wrapped up the frame on top, albeit by a slimmer margin than the team had hoped, 82-75. 

James essentially took over offensively in the fourth quarter, dishing out seven dimes and racking up seven points in the period. 

On the other side of the ball, Anthony Davis' (sadly foul-heavy) work in the paint and Cam Reddish's tactical arms in passing lines abetted Los Angeles defensively.

With the score still somewhat close late (well, sort of), Darvin Ham didn't even bring in subs until the 1:11 mark of the fourth quarter. LA led 107-95 at that point. No one would score again.

Los Angeles enjoyed terrific advantages in three-point shooting (40% on 12-of-30 shooting, compared to 27% on 10-of-37 shooting for Portland), assists (27-17), and points in the paint (50-42).

James notched a season-high in made threes (5-of-9) and tied his season-high in points (35, on 13-of-22 shooting from the floor and 4-of-6 shooting from the foul line). This marked his 108th 30-point game with LA. Davis had a more modest scoring night, but logged a still-helpful 16-point, 14-rebound double-double. Oh, and he had five blocks (all in the opening half).

There's still some work to do, long-term, for the Lakers. The team struggled to control the ball, coughing up 18 turnovers. Granted, Portland also notched 18 turnovers, but Portland is a young, sloppy team, and being prone to mistakes is far more understandable on its end. LA also seemed to essentially go as LeBron went. When he eased up a bit at the end of the opening half and the top of the third quarter, his colleagues followed suit.

Los Angeles has just one more game remaining in the pool play round of the NBA In-Season Tournament, against the Utah Jazz (now 2-1 in Group A) on Tuesday. The loss eliminates the now-1-2 Trail Blazers from a shot at advancing to the next round. LA's +42 point differential represents the best in the In-Season Tournament thus far.

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Alex Kirschenbaum
ALEX KIRSCHENBAUM

Currently also a scribe for Newsweek, Hoops Rumors, The Sporting News and "Gremlins" director Joe Dante's film site Trailers From Hell, Alex is an alum of Men's Journal, Grizzlies fan site Grizzly Bear Blues, and Bulls fan sites Blog-A-Bull and Pippen Ain't Easy, among others.

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