The Lakers, like their top-seeded counterparts in Milwaukee, rattled off their fourth straight win on Saturday to close out their first round series with the Blazers in 4-1 fashion, beating a very scrappy but undermanned Portland team 131-122 in Game 5.
LeBron James and Anthony Davis were spectacular, with Davis posting 43 points and nine rebounds, while James racked up a 36-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist triple-double. The rest of the Lakers struggled to regain the form they’d found in games 2-4 in this series, and the outcome of this one was in doubt until the final minutes when James and Davis pulled the Lakers well in front.
For Portland, it puts an end to a strange season, as they stumbled early, caught fire to play their way into the playoffs in the Bubble, and then saw their hopes against the Lakers go down with the knee injury to Damian Lillard in Game 4 after L.A. had asserted itself. Now, the Blazers enter the offseason while L.A. looks ahead to a showdown with the Rockets, should they be able to put away the Thunder in Game 6 (or 7) of that series on Monday.
Here are our takeaways from a first round series that looked initially to be competitive, but ultimately saw the Lakers run away with it.
Anthony Davis and LeBron James are peaking at the right time
We’ll get to the things about this Lakers team that concern you moving forward in the postseason, but we’ll start with the positives in that their two superstars are playing at an unbelievable level right now. Combining for 79 points, the two stars put on quite the spectacle in Game 5, inside and out, as they lit up a Blazers defense that, quite simply, had no answers for L.A. all series.
LBJ, Melo trading buckets in 1st half on @NBAonTNT. #NBAPlayoffs
LeBron: 24 PTS (10-13 FGM)
Carmelo: 18 PTS (3-3 3PM) pic.twitter.com/F3DaLUzua2— NBA (@NBA) August 30, 2020
Anthony Davis drops 20 in the 3rd!@Lakers 100@trailblazers 92
4Q underway on TNT. #NBAPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/udEDxjcxh7
— NBA (@NBA) August 30, 2020
AD throws down the oop for a 40-point game 🔥🔥🔥
(📺: @SpectrumSN & TNT) pic.twitter.com/KVxHWIyC6J
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) August 30, 2020
Triple-double for Bron… another bucket for AD. #NBAPlayoffs on TNT pic.twitter.com/hXZ3eVIq0J
— NBA (@NBA) August 30, 2020
If they do face the Rockets, they’ll face a defense with weaknesses they can take at times take advantage of inside, but that will throw a variety of looks and wing defenders at them in what is almost a polar opposite team to the Blazers, who have few wings and a lot of traditional bigs in the rotation. That adjustment could be fascinating — OKC also has a bevy of wing defenders should they run off two straight wins — but the level of play from L.A.’s top stars will make them very, very difficult to beat.
L.A.’s role players have to find some consistency on offense
On the concerning side for the Lakers is seeing another game in the Bubble in which Davis and James weren’t given a ton of support in the form of a clear third option. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hit some timely threes as he had 14 points, but Dwight Howard was the only other Laker in double figures with 11. While no one would confuse the Rockets with a great defensive team, they do put a lot of stress and pressure on the ball-handler, which is the most glaring weakness of this Lakers offense beyond LeBron. In games where the Lakers others have hit shots, they’ve looked the part of a dominant team, but in those where they’ve struggled shooting from distance, it can get dicey.
That’s not exactly unique to the Lakers — it’s especially true of the Rockets as well — but it is an interesting dynamic to this year’s playoffs that even the top teams feel more vulnerable to cold shooting nights that we’ve seen in recent years. Against Houston’s ultra-switching, havoc defense, L.A. is going to need their role players to knock down shots when they send help at LeBron and Davis. The Rockets have shown a willingness to abandon a cold shooter in the Thunder series, as they no longer even defend Luguentz Dort, and the same fate could come to Alex Caruso should his struggles from the outside continue.
Portland needs to make some tweaks
The injury to Lillard put a damper on the end to this series, but really it felt over before he hurt his knee in what had become a blowout in Game 4. Portland played unbelievable basketball to get into the playoffs, but the toll of that effort was apparent by the second game of the Lakers series and the level they had to play at offensively, given their defensive struggles, seems unsustainable for real success in the regular season. It’s possible that Trevor Ariza’s presence would’ve made a huge difference for their success defending on the wing, but they simply can’t be needing to play Mario Hezonja real minutes if they want to compete. They have to upgrade the wing rotation in some way this offseason beyond Ariza to be a team that can win even on the nights in which the offense isn’t scalding hot, as it was during the seeding round. Every game was a grind and required everything Lillard, McCollum, Nurkic, and Anthony had. They went down swinging, which was great to see, but if they want to regain the form that made them a conference finalists two seasons ago, they have to find a way to bolster that rotation.
With that said, C.J. McCollum and Carmelo Anthony were spectacular in Game 5, combining for 63 points in Lillard’s absence and it was great to see Anthony continue to prove he has plenty left to give to a good team. They certainly need to bolster their rotation on the wing, but a fully healthy Blazers team can absolutely contend for a mid-seed in the West again and they’ve proven that if they get hot at the right time they can be an absolute nightmare to face.