National Basketball Association

Blazers Well Rested Before They Take On The Lakers

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 2:46 p.m. ET

Fansided, Joe Chambers/FanSided via Rip City Project

Portland Shoots for Another Win Against LA, while Reflecting on a Championship

The Portland Trail Blazers are coming off a huge win against the Boston Celtics on Saturday. They have had plenty of time to prepare for the Lakers and get some rest. The Trail Blazers were recently in a slump and were struggling to pull away with wins, but they showed some signs of improvement in Saturday’s win. The Lakers just got destroyed by the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday in their worse loss of their franchise history, so they will be hungry.

Portland’s 26th in the league in opponents points per game. This has been a topic of discussion the entire year and has dropped Portland to 9th in the conference. We have the talent, just not the defense, specifically on the perimeter. The Lakers have a lot of good shooters and could exploit our weakness at any time. Even though they played like crap last Sunday, they will be looking to get points in transition and score all over the court. We have to communicate and get some stops in order to prevent the Lakers from getting hot.

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Damian Lillard has been superb this year. He has stepped up his game since his injury and has been knocking down shots. Most importantly, he has been opening up his vision and involving his fellow teammates. His partner in crime, C.J. McCollum has been great as well. We know both can score, but it will be interesting whether Portland can translate to a great assist game as well.

If Portland can knock down shots, I feel like we should be solid. If we can limit the Lakers to take tough contested shots, then it’s game over.

On top of all this, the Blazers will be celebrating their 40th anniversary of their 1977 Championship. Luke Walton, the coach of the Lakers, will get to watch his dad Bill honored at halftime. The place should be rocking as all of the remaining members of the ’77 team are honored at halftime and throughout the game.