10/18 LeBron Era Begins! - LAKERS @ Portland Trail Blazers 1st Half Open Thread

Welcome to the first half open thread of the Lakers' opening matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers! Leave a comment below and share your thoughts on the game.

Q2

LAL 63 POR 65

Shucks that Portland still has the, but it's better to trail by a basket at half time then down by a lot. That's the way that this game almost went. The Blazers were finally hitting their 3-ball when Nik Stauskas came off the bench, starting off a perfect 4-4 from beyond the arc. I was thinking "uh oh." The Lakers couldn't buy a bucket from deep. And when you try to fight fire with fire, trying to outshoot a good 3-point shooting team in Portland, you're gonna get burned big time. Though the 3-pointers weren't falling, the Lakers stuck with their game of dominating the paint. That's where they got most of their points. It also helps that their defense sets up the offense in transition. McGee had some nice defensive plays, so did Ingram. Let's get to the heap of things. LeBron James, 18 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists. Not a bad debut for the King. He electrified the crowd the first quarter, exchanging dunks with Dame making the Moda Center go crazy. While LeBron does his thing, it seems that the scoring goes stagnant when he goes to the bench. Ingram is struggling offensively. KCP, non-factor. But who stepped up this quarter was Rajon Rondo with 10 points and 6 assists. Rondo has been a guy who's scoring's been overlooked. Once he finds ways to score, defenses have to respect both his scoring and playmaking attributes. And he did that this quarter. So far, it's been the veterans LeBron, Rondo, and McGee who's been doing the work. Let's see the young core follow as the 2nd half gets underway.

Q1

LAL 31 POR 34

I got in on time when the action got good. Turned the T.V. on and I saw LeBron and Dame exchange dunks on both ends of the floor. That's when you know it's exciting. Last thing, I remember the Lakers built an 8-10 point lead. Then, Portland came storming back. The Blazers of course are playing with a heavy heart for the late Paul Allen, owner of both the Blazers and the Seahawks. As LeBron went off the floor, there were so many questions on who would be the go-to-scorer and the Lakers haven't answered that down the stretch. Free throws and 0/6 from the 3-point land are some of the reasons. While the Blazers are hitting their 3-point shots with Nik Stauskas hitting his first two buckets from beyond the arc to spark the Blazers run and the eventual lead at the end of one.