On Monday evening, the Los Angeles Lakers hit the road to take on the Portland Trail Blazers in search of their fourth straight win. Despite playing without both Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves (in addition to LeBron James), the Lakers were still able to pull out a 123-115 win thanks to 57 points combined from Rui Hachimura and Deandre Ayton.
Bronny James got to see some extended run in this one, scoring five points and dishing out six assists in 19 minutes of play, and after the game, Lakers legend had high praise for the former second round draft pick.
“I thought this might have been Bronny's best game of his NBA career,” said Worthy, per Lakers Daily on X, formerly Twitter.
James played some solid defense throughout the evening in Portland, as many suspected would have to be his calling card in order to hang in there at the NBA level.
It was the second straight game that James had seen rotational minutes for the Lakers, having put together an impressive highlight dunk in their recent win over the Miami Heat at home.
A hot start for the Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers now sit at 6-2, having fully overcome an opening night dud against the Golden State Warriors. Reaves and Doncic have both been playing some otherwordly basketball over the team's four-game winning streak, but there was still some concern as to just how much depth the Lakers actually had on this roster.
If Monday night's performance was any indication, the answer was a lot, as Ayton, Smart, and offseason signee Nick Smith Jr. all put up 25 points or more, overwhelming a Blazers team that seemed to think they could sleepwalk their way to a win with Doncic and Reaves out of the lineup.
It will be interesting to see how the rotations look for head coach JJ Redick once LeBron James is back in the lineup alongsisde Doncic and Reaves, but for now, it seems that Los Angeles has a good thing going at this early juncture of the season.
