The Lakers Strike Back and Even the Series by Beating the Blazers 111-88

 

Now that's how you dominate a game.

That's how you come out and play when you are the number 1 seed in the playoffs, and your opponent is the 8th seed.

That's how you come out and smother an opponent with suffocating defense.

That's how you make a statement if your end goal is to nab the hardware that only one team will bring home.

The Lakers, from beginning till end, dominated the talented, but shell-shocked Portland Trailblazers, leading by 33 points at one point during game 2 of their best of 7 game series. The Lakers played like champions and helped eradicate that rock-in-the-gut feeling we fans had after their failure to show up in game 1. 

LeBron James & Anthony Davis set the tone early on

 

The difference from Tuesday's game?

*The Lakers shot the ball better than the Blazers: from the floor, from the three point line, and from the charity stripe. Portland needed a map to find their way to the hoop. Meanwhile the streaking Lakers built a double digit lead soon after the start of the 3rd quarter.

 

*They out-rebounded the Blazers, and muscled Portland as they saw fit. The team used their strengths to their advantage, and denied the Blazers the chance to use theirs. They went out and GOT the game; they didn't wait until the game came to them.

 

*They played excellent team defense, especially against Damian Lillard. Lillard was a shadow of the player who dominated game 1 on Tuesday. His 6 made field goals were the result of a herculean effort to get any open looks. The Lakers aggressively picked him up full-court, and constantly double-teamed him off of screens. The defense applied by the Lakers guards gave Lillard very little opportunity to get going, but he wasn't the only Blazer to fall victim to the Lakers defensive efforts. 

Danny Green and the Lakers smothered Lillard

 

Carmelo Anthony finished just 1 for 6 from the floor, Jusuf Nurkic shot a below par 4 for 10, and C.J. McCollum, their best shooter beside Lillard, finished 6 for 16. The Lake Show played great team defense, and held a juggernaut offense, that had been averaging 123 point for the last 11 games, to 88 points. The Blazers shot a cold 40% from the floor. It would have been lower if it hadn't been for their scrubs raising their percentage by making a few shots in garbage time.

Portland's Offense Sputtered Under the Relentless Lakers Defense

 

*The stars came to play. Anthony Davis and Lebron James dominated the ball, and imposed their will on the Blazers. James did a little bit of everything, and dominated with a solid overall performance. AD did a great job getting quality looks around the basket, while using his size and athleticism against helpless Portland defenders.  He specifically did three things better tonight:

 

-He attacked the hoop with ferocity, both on and off the ball, grabbing weak side rebounds, and snagging easy put backs against the Portland bigs.

Anthony Davis was too much for the Blazers front court

-He didn't settle for jumpers, and scored many of his points inside the paint. Only after he established himself as an inside terror did he step out to shoot some jumpers. His 3 point shooting was on tonight as he knocked down 3 of 4 from deep.

 

-He didn't hesitate to be aggressive. Davis may have put up decent numbers in game 1, but his overall performance left fans pining for more. They got it tonight.  AD became the first Lakers player to put up 30 points in under 30 minutes (last accomplished by The Captain, Mr. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, back in the 1980's). 

 

*Other players stepped up. A miserable showing by the Lakers backcourt in game 1 is a distance memory after tonight's performance. KCP came out of the gate firing, knocking down his first two threes. He eventually would make 4 from beyond the arc, and finished with 16 points. You could see his confidence building with every shot. He also played solid defensive against Lillard, giving him very little room to operate.

KCP after one of his 4 three pointers

Danny Green, Anthony Caruso and Markieff Morris did their best by tirelessly harassing Lillard and McCollum into shooting a combined 12 from 30 from the field.

 

Javale McGee made some noise in his short 13 minute stint. He finished with 10 points, 8 boards, and 3 assists, and effectively banged down low against Portland's front court.

 

No other player's stats really jumped out from the box score, but it was a great team effort nonetheless. 

JR Smith scored 11 points in his Lakers Playoff Debut

*Another telling stat: the Blazers finished with only 14 assists, and it was plain to see why: the Los Angeles defense was stifling. The solid team offense the Blazers displayed in game 1, devolved into a mess of questionable shot selections, wide-open missed shots by not-so confident shooters, and far too much one on one basketball.

 

This was a great statement game by the Lakers. But just like the first contest on Tuesday, it's just one game. The series is tied at one game apiece, and you can bet good money, bent finger and all, that Lillard will find a way to will his team to be competitive Saturday against the purple and gold.

Lillard suffered a dislocated finger colliding with Anthony Davis's shoe

The Lakers played and looked like Champions tonight. Let's hope they can do this 15 more times before it's all said and done.