Final Score: POR 100 LAL 93 - Trail Blazers lead 1-0
Welcome in to the recap of Game 1 of Lakers playoff basketball. Lakers started slow out of the gate, made a furious comeback, but it wasn't enough to slow down Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, and the Portland Trail Blazers as they draw first blood in this playoff matchup.
As I said before, the Blazers will not make this easy. You have a team playing with a sense of urgency since the restart, a team playing better than what they're record shows vs. a team that is still trying to find their way back into the swing of things. First things first, yes this game was a fight to the bitter end. But, when you get into a slow start against this team, they'll make you pay for it eventually.
For the most part, the first half was a brutal start for the Lakers. Their offensive struggles have been magnified even more this game, which I'll get into later. Up until the 8:27 mark in the 2nd quarter, Lakers showed signs of life. The things that worked this game was that the Lakers dominated the points in the paint and they drew a lot of fouls inside to get to the free throw line. The two-man game of LeBron and AD was on point inside, but outside and in crunch time was a different story. In the first half, Lakers scored 26 points in the paint compared to Portland's 14 points. Bench production was a positive with 25 combined points. Kyle Kuzma lead the way with 14 points off the bench. Portland only plays 3 men off the bench. As I said in the preview, they've play an 8-man rotation in the bubble. This will be the biggest mismatch that the Lakers must exploit in this series.
The negatives, the 3-point shooting is still a major problem. But before I get into that, the Lakers started shooting 20% from the field in the first quarter before getting up to 36% shooting at the half. But the woeful field goal percentage accounts to the 3-points shooting that hasn't been on point during this restart. Tonight, Lakers shot 5/32 from beyond the arc. I thought the corner 3 was Danny Green's sweet spot? He finished 2-8 from three's, but most of his misses came from the corner. Some of them wide open and he missed them. Anthony Davis may have lead in the scoring with 28 points and dominated inside, but he attempted five 3-pointers and missed all of them. LeBron James went 1-5 from downtown, despite a triple-double and so did Kyle Kuzma. Kentavious Caldwell-Poop went 0-5. Alex Caruso went 0-3. Markieff Morris saw extended action off the bench and was the only player that shot 100% from 3-point land. But, that's not saying much.
Missed free throws were also magnified from this game. It was 89-87 in the 4th quarter and the Lakers had two chances from the line to tie the game up behind their superstar duo. LBJ and AD missed both of their attempts and left four points on the table. But, it wouldn't have mattered. Dame Time lived up to his moniker in the 4th quarter and the Blazers close out the game on an 10-4 run. The Blazers had four players in foul trouble this game. But when they backcourt tandem of Lillard and McCollum are firing on a cylinders, they pretty much cancel out Portland's flaws. As I mentioned in the preview, the Blazers' defense is suspect. But tonight, their defense came up big headlined by Hassan Whiteside providing that spark with 5 blocks. A side note I should point out, Dion Waiters only played 1 minute this game even though he has engineered consistent production off the bench since this restart. I don't know how he fell out of the rotation tonight, but I should see him on that floor to spark the offense, especially for Game 2.
I know many of the Laker faithful will sugar coat this 1st game. "It's the first game, we'll be back." "Orlando pulled a stunner over Milwaukee earlier today, don't feel bad." But, there's no sugar coating it. The Lakers will have their work cut out in this series. This is a legit, scary team that they're facing for a first round matchup. And the fact that the offensive struggles are still magnified after 8 seeding games, there is still cause for concern. The Lakers clinched the #1 seed, but they haven't played like one up to this point. You can't expect to outscore this Blazers team by shooting under 40% from the field and chucking up 32 3-point attempts and making just 5 of them. You just can't! We need to see better in Game 2 Thursday night. It's early in the series, but the Lakers have to treat Game 2 as a "must-win." I'll see you guys later.
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