01/05: LAKERS @ Portland Trail Blazers 1st Half Open Thread and Discussion

Welcome in to the first half open thread and discussion of the Lakers' Thursday night road matchup vs. the Portland Trail Blazers. Leave a comment below to share your thoughts on the half.

Q2

LAL 62 POR 53

Impressive 2nd quarter for the Lakers until the later stages of the quarter. They couldn't quite replicate their performance against the Grizzlies Tuesday night, but this'll do. How about Brandon Ingram? This might be the breakout game that we've been waiting for, but I'll hold that in for a bit. But, I think he's starting to be more assertive and tonight is a good start. He's starting to find the range a bit from the three point land and he's being aggressive on both sides of the ball tonight. With Luol Deng out, he'll be getting a lot of opportunity to build up confidence in his shot and abilities. Randle and Mozgov got off to a good start to get the offense going and Clarkson turned it on off the bench, attacking the basket and also doing it on the defensive end, notching 2 steals. They're going to need more of those stats defensively. Lillard and McCollum will have their way, but they gotta stop giving up easy baskets. They are being too over committed on one Blazer and another player cuts behind them for an easy deuce. That was apparent with Mason Plumlee and guys like Crabbe and Harkless. The Lakers need to defend the screen and roll better while continuing to play unselfish, aggressive basketball like the game against the Grizzlies on Tuesday. The 2nd half will open up shortly.

Q1

LAL 24 POR 29

The Lakers had a rough start early on this quarter. Down 0-6, a pair of turnovers to start, these are signs of a young team. But, they started to come on offensively with Mozgov and Randle being aggressive. I thought Russell was also aggressive. He was drawing all kinds of contact from the Blazers' defense to get to the free throw line. Defensively, the issues are still apparent. Damian Lillard showed no signs of rust, returning from injury and starting perfect from the field. But, they allowed three easy by Mason Plumlee as a result of over committing on the double team. Lakers end the quarter down by five, so there's still plenty of time to get in this game. This is especially important now that Lillard is on the bench and C.J. McCollum is off to a slow start.