Injuries nearly swallowed the Lakers whole Monday night, leaving them short on ballhandlers, key role players and star power.
They were down seven players and they were playing on back-to-back nights to top it off, leaving the task daunting for the Lakers.
Still, the Lakers had to press on against the odds, which they were unable to overcome in falling 122-108 to the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Austin Reaves did his best to keep the Lakers in the game, scoring 41 points one night after scoring a career-high 51 at Sacramento. Reaves now has scored 143 points in the first four games this season, tying him with Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor (1962) for the most points in Lakers’ history over that span to start the season.
“I am tired, but this is why we play the game,” Reaves said after playing 39 minutes and nine seconds and going 13-for-22 from the field and three for eight from three-point range. “It’s fun. Obviously, we didn’t play as good as we wanted to tonight, but like [Lakers coach] JJ [Redick] said after the game, it’s tough with short rotations. We got seven guys, I think, that were out. So we played hard. We played hard enough to win. We just didn’t execute as good as we needed to.”
Rui Hachimura (16 points) and Deandre Ayton (16 points, eight rebounds) tried to help out.
But with guard Luka Doncic (left finger sprain, lower left leg contusion) and LeBron James (right sciatica) out, it was going to be tough for the Lakers. Then with guards Marcus Smart (right quad contusion) and Gabe Vincent (left ankle sprain) down, it meant the Lakers were in deeper trouble without much of their backcourt. Add Maxi Kleber (abdominal muscle strain), Jaxson Hayes (right patellar tendinopathy) and Adou Thiero (left knee surgery recovery) sitting the bench in street clothes, and it was too much for the Lakers to deal with.
Reaves has now scored 92 points in the last two games, doing all he can to keep the Lakers afloat without all their players.
“He’s a competitor,” Jarred Vanderbilt said about Reaves. “He steps out for every challenge. I mean, you see it in 90-some points in two nights…I don’t know. That’s crazy. But, yeah, he left it out there on the floor and we didn’t get the win. But like I said, I think we played with the right edge.”
The Lakers have two more games this week, at Minnesota on Wednesday night and at Memphis on Friday, meaning L.A. will have played four games this week while not being whole.
Redick was asked who might be available for the Lakers going forward.
“Hopeful on Jaxson,” he said. “Hopeful on Marcus. Yeah, hopeful. We’ll see.”
Along with Reaves, who had eight turnovers, and Ayton, the Lakers started Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura and Jake LaRavia.
The Lakers’ bench consisted of Dalton Knecht, Bronny James and Chris Manon and Christian Koloko — both of whom are on two-way contracts — leaving them with nine available players.
Knecht had 16 points off the bench in 24:42. Nick Smith Jr. had two points, but no one else scored off the bench for the Lakers.
Taking care of the basketball was one of the Lakers’ problems. Then again, that wasn’t a total surprise considering the Lakers really had just one ballhander in Reaves and he was harassed all night by Portland.
The Lakers turned the ball over 25 times, leading to 30 points for the Trail Blazers points.
“That was just difficult with the personnel that was out there,” Redick said. “ It’s hard to run [your] offense without ballhandlers.”
The Lakers didn’t do it from the three-point line in the first half, missing 11 of their 12 attempts. They finished the game going seven for 27 from the three-point line.
Deni Avdija led the Blazers with 25 points and Jrue Holiday had 24.
This story originally appeared on LA Times
