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The Portland Trail Blazers and Damian Lillard fell behind 2-1 in their first round series against the Los Angeles Lakers after losing Game 3, 116-108. One of the glaring discrepancies in Saturday's game was the free throw attempts. The Lakers shot 43 free throws throughout the game. Meanwhile, Portland attempted just 19 in the entire contest.
Blazers superstar Damian Lillard spoke about the massive free throw disparity after the game. He noted the difficulty of beating a team as good as the Lakers when they're afforded as many free throws as they got in Game 3.
"The discrepancy in free throws is something that's out of our control…when a team is living at the free throw line, like they did tonight, it's going to be hard to win a game against a team that's as good as they are."
Lakers went to the line 43 times vs. Blazers 19#RipCity pic.twitter.com/VnQ4tThpFK
— Orlando Sanchez (@orlandokgw) August 23, 2020
Likewise, people on social media noticed the huge difference as well:
https://twitter.com/DrGuru_/status/1297352246951370753
When the Lakers go to the free throw line again… #NBAPlayoffs @trailblazers pic.twitter.com/HZWNMPwSzb
— Tristan Jared (@TristanMoore8) August 23, 2020
▪️Lakers with 31 Free Throw Attempts in the 1st Half.
▪️Blazers have 8 #RipCity | #LakeShow pic.twitter.com/AzMgyYWaxV
— Backcourt Violation (@backcourtv) August 23, 2020
Lakers have 41 FREE THROW ATTEMPTS pic.twitter.com/V6Q9dLIlP1
— Union (@Un1onIsHere) August 23, 2020
Fans are not happy with this development at all.
One even gave an example of the kind of calls the Blazers don't get against Los Angeles.
https://twitter.com/DHawes22/status/1297388646379556870
It's clear from the play above that there was contact on Nurkic's dunk for the Blazers.
LeBron James, himself, almost shot as many attempts from the free throw line as the entire Blazers squad did. The four-time MVP went 12-of-17 from the charity stripe, as compared to Portland's efficient 18-of-19 mark.
Blazers head coach Terry Stotts also couldn't believe the huge free throw disparity in Game 3, especially in the first half.
"As far as the free throw differential, particularly at halftime, I don't know if I've ever been in a game where it was that big. It certainly had an impact on the first half when differential was 23, so that had an impact on the game." #RipCity #Lakeshow pic.twitter.com/UZa6wu3n9s
— Orlando Sanchez (@orlandokgw) August 23, 2020
Los Angeles attempted 31 free throws in the first half alone, while Portland only got eight through the first 24 minutes. As Stotts noted, the 23 free throw difference may have played a huge role in keeping the Lakers in the game. The Blazers led at the intermission by four.
The game swung towards the Lakers way in the third quarter after they outscored Portland 40-29 in that period. The Blazers tried to keep in step throughout the second half, but Los Angeles proved tough in the end game.
