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LOS ANGELES — The Lakers returned from their four-game road trip – having lost three in a row – looking and sounding like a team in need of a stretch of time at home.
The Lakers get to spend six days in Southern California, from Saturday through Thursday, leading up to their road game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night. Given this schedule, it would have been easy for them to overlook their home game against the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Especially when star forward LeBron James was ruled out because of left foot soreness, in addition to Austin Reaves missing his fifth consecutive game because of a bruised left pelvis.
But looking to bounce back from the sting of a gut-wrenching overtime loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Friday, the Lakers (13-11) took care of business, beating the Blazers, 107-98, to end their three-game slide with just their third win in the past 10 games.
“Next man up,” All-Star big man Anthony Davis said. “That’s why we have a team. Other guys had to step up. Guys know have to step up when we have a guy like Bron out. Guys took on a challenge and, even though it was a last-minute scratch this is what guys prepared for and guys got a chance.
“Some guys got a chance to come in and play in a little bit more minutes than they probably normally would, and they did what they were supposed to do.”
Davis led the Lakers with 30 points, 11 rebounds and five blocked shots.
“We were running our sets. We were screening well. Guys were getting shots that we had gotten the first couple of games in the season,” Davis said. “It’s not rocket science. We just got to continue to play how we’ve been playing the last couple of games and we’ll be all right.”
D’Angelo Russell stepped up off the bench in light of James’ absence, finishing with season-highs of 28 points, 14 assists, nine made field goals and five 3-point baskets to go along with five rebounds in 34 minutes.
Russell had 13 points and six assists in the fourth quarter, which the Lakers started with a 77-74 lead after the Blazers (8-16), who have lost eight of their last 10 games, finished the third on an 11-2 run.
The 10th-year guard, who declined to speak with reporters after the game, opened the quarter by assisting Rui Hachimura (season-high 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting) on a pair of layups, sandwiched around Russell’s floater, to give the Lakers an 83-76 lead early in the fourth.
Russell hit a trio of stepback 3-pointers and assisted Christian Kololo on a dunk and Cam Reddish on a 3-pointer to build a 97-81 lead with 7:14 left.
The Lakers led 107-88 before both teams pulled their main rotation players.
“We know what we’re supposed to do offensively,” Davis said. “We know where we’re supposed to get to as far as our spots, our running patterns, offensive schemes, our plays. We know all of that. Just about a matter of executing it.”
The Blazers closed the game on an 11-0 run with both team’s end-of-bench players in the game.
The Lakers finished with 14 steals and forced 17 turnovers, resulting in 26 points. Hachimura led the team with four steals, while Gabe Vincent had three and Reddish had two.
“I was just trying to be aggressive,” Hachimura said. “Especially defensively, we have been traveling, but [Sunday] I think we were playing more with Gabe [Vincent], Cam, Max [Christie], it made it easier to kind of be more aggressive because I can trust them. They’re always making plays defensively.”
Hachimura gave the Lakers just what they were looking for without James, scoring 14 points in the second quarter on 5-of-6 shooting as the Lakers rebounded from a first-period deficit to take a 59-45 lead into halftime.
Portland was led by Shaedon Sharpe’s 19 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Deandre Ayton scored 14 points with 19 rebounds.
The Lakers will take the next couple of days off before returning to the practice floor on Wednesday.
“We haven’t had a ton of practice time, but the reality is we’re banged up,” Coach JJ Redick said. “Even the guys that are playing every night are banged up. [Sunday] is the end of a very long, two-week road trip. We’ve already had an 11-day road trip. Travel has been tough. I would’ve liked to practice [more] but you do have to look at these opportunities, and they’re very rare, to give your guys two days off.”
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