Lakers-Blazers recap: Lakers stop four-game skid with strong defense

The Los Angeles Lakers hadn’t played well at all over the past few games. They had lost their last four games and were losers of five of their last six. But after Damian Lillard scored 24 points in the first half of Friday night’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers, the Lakers collectively did an amazing job of saying “enough” as the Blazers didn’t have enough firepower without stars CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic to match the Lakers.

LeBron James had 28 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists in the win while Dennis Schröder appeared to have a little rust but not enough to stop him from contributing to a win, as he finished with 22 points. While Schröder didn’t have the most efficient night, the positive effect he had on LeBron’s energy levels on both ends helped lead the Lakers to a win after falling behind early.

Damian Lillard had 35 points for the Blazers on Friday night to lead all scorers but had only 11 of those 35 in the 2nd half as the Lakers sold out to stop him. They forced Portland’s other players to make decisions and shots for the entire second half and they reaped the success by breaking their four-game losing streak.

It's the little things

Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

If you look at the box score from an efficiency standpoint, Dennis Schröder had a bad game. But when you are able to zoom out and consider how great the Lakers were on defense in the second half you're able to realize just how important his presence was. 6 for 14 from the field doesn't sound great but he got to the line nine times and while he may not have been in ideal shape, he helped provide the Lakers with another layer of resistance against Lillard. The Lakers defense committed to trapping Lillard in the second half and their other players failed to make the Lakers pay for the strategy. The Lakers defense deserves a lot of praise and a lot of that success has to do with Frank Vogel. By forcing his team to commit to cutting off Lillard like it was a playoff game, the Lakers were able to get off of their losing skid.

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