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As great as the Portland Trail Blazers have been inside the bubble in Orlando, Florida, they have never been considered an elite defensive team. However, that wasn't the case when they faced the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday.
The Blazers shut down the Lakers' offense, running away with a 100-93 win to take Game 1 of their best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series.
Per Anthony Slater of The Athletic, Tuesday's game marks the first time since January that the Blazers held an opponent to under 100 points.
This was the first time since…January 7th that a Blazers opponent didn’t score 100+ points. Thirty-seven games. Lakers offense in a rough place.
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) August 19, 2020
While the Terry Stotts-coached squad has been overwhelming their opponents on offense, they haven't really been able to shut them down defensively. Prior to Game 1 versus the Purple and Gold, the Blazers gave up an average of 123 points in the eight seeding games.
Not a good sign for the Lakers that they only scored 93 points on a Trail Blazers team that had allowed an average of 123 points per game in the bubble.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) August 19, 2020
Portland did ramp its defense, particularly in the fourth canto. However, its quite evident that the Lakers dug themselves a big hole by failing to execute their offense and hit their open shots.
The Lakers shot an atrocious 35.1 percent from the field, hitting just 34 of their 97 total attempts. They fared worse from past the arc, going 5-for-32 for a putrid 15.6 percent. Danny Green and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope were the biggest offenders, setting LA back with their inefficient outing.
Anthony Davis – 7/23, 30 FG%
Danny Green – 4/11, 36 FG%
KCP – 0/8, 0 FG%
Caruso – 1/5, 20 FG%Yikes
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) August 19, 2020
The Blazers, on the other hand, knocked down 13 of their 34 threes (38.2 percent). Damian Lillard, Carmelo Anthony, and Gary Trent Jr. all hit clutch triples in the fourth to put the Lakers away.
Portland's backcourt did a fine job chasing around the Lakers' shooters, while Hassan Whiteside was phenomenal in protecting the paint by erasing five shots.
The Lakers, meanwhile, were considered the best defensive team in the league prior to the postseason. They need to find a way to be consistent on both sides of the ball. If for some reason they can't, they will surely be in a long series against the upset-minded Blazers.
