The Portland Trail Blazers’ first NBA Cup outing of the season ended in a 124-118 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, but it took a massive comeback effort to get there.
Portland built a lead of as many as 16 points in the first half before Luka Doncic turned the game into his own showcase. The Lakers clawed all the way back behind what looked like a dominant stretch from Doncic, who has been playing like the league MVP through the first two weeks of the season.
For Portland, Deni Avdija was right in the middle of everything. He nearly posted a triple-double with 22 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds, and he kept pressure on the Lakers all night by drawing contact and getting to the line. The free throws didn’t come cleanly - he missed five and finished 9 of 14 there - and the turnover count was ugly at eight, but the Blazers would not have stayed in the fight without him.
Damian Lillard also gave Portland a steady hand. He finished as the team’s leading scorer and knocked down four triples, giving the Blazers the kind of veteran offensive presence they simply didn’t have last season. That stability has mattered early this year, especially against top-end competition.
Not everyone had a night to remember. Scoot Henderson struggled to find his footing alongside Lillard, and the numbers tell the story: five turnovers, no assists, and just two shot attempts, both misses. At this point, he looks out of sync and far from settled into his role.
Donovan Clingan also had to battle foul trouble, which kept him to 28 minutes. Even so, he still managed a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds.
The Blazers won’t have much time to dwell on this one. They’re back on the floor tomorrow night against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs in a rematch of last year’s playoff series.
Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. PT at the Moda Center, with the game on Rip City Sports Network and streaming on NBA League Pass.
In Other News...
Luka Doncic Is Forcing A New Lakers Question Fast
Luka Doncic keeps making the Lakers scoring conversation feel less like a nice problem and more like a nightly reality. In the 124-118 win over Portland, he poured in 53 points with five rebounds and five assists, carrying Los Angeles through a game that demanded nearly everything from him. It was the kind of performance that also had head coach JJ Redick praising him afterward, which has become a familiar refrain as Doncics workload and production keep climbing together.
The bigger question now is what this run means for the way the Lakers are built around him. Doncic has now put together four straight 40-point games, a stretch that places him in rare company in franchise history and underscores just how quickly he has become central to everything Los Angeles does on offense. For a team trying to balance winning now with finding a sustainable formula, his latest outburst only sharpens the debate about how far this version of the Lakers can go if he keeps carrying this kind of load. [Read more 🡒]
Anthony Davis To Lakers Talk Comes With One Huge Problem
Anthony Davis midseason move to Washington has already created a new layer of intrigue for the Lakers, even if it is still early in the process. ESPNs Brian Windhorst said the Wizards are taking a measured approach, wanting to see Davis over a meaningful stretch before making any call on an extension, which naturally shapes how the rest of the league has to view him. He has gotten off to a productive start in Washington, averaging 23.4 points and 9.3 rebounds in his first eight games there, and that kind of production is enough to keep the speculation machine humming.
For the Lakers, though, the path back is not simple. Any talk of a reunion runs into the reality that Los Angeles does not have much left in the way of premium trade pieces, which makes a big swing far more complicated than the name value alone would suggest. Until Washington makes its long-term intentions clearer, Davis remains one of the more interesting players to monitor on the market, but the Lakers are hardly in position to chase him without serious hurdles. [Read more 🡒]
Jimmy Butler Had The Perfect Sideline Reaction In Warriors-Magic
The Warriors-Magic game at Chase Center had enough going on to keep the crowd locked in, from the on-court dustup between Georges Niang and Wendell Carter Jr. to Stephen Curry hitting another three on the way to a notable statistical milestone. Orlando had the edge late, with Nikola Vucevic, Franz Wagner and Tristan da Silva helping the Magic stay in front while Curry and Brandin Podziemski carried Golden States offense.
Even the sideline had its own reaction to the moment, with Jimmy Butler in the building as the Warriors tried to chase down the lead. For a team still trying to sort out its rhythm and health, every swing in a tight game matters, and Butlers presence added another layer to a night that already felt chippy, tense and very much in the middle of the season grind. [Read more 🡒]