PORTLAND—Most nights at the Moda Center, the Portland Trail Blazers are the show. But Saturday, they were simply part of a bigger, weirder show as Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers came to town.
Portland’s backcourt of CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard combined for 57 points, giving the Blazers just enough substance to wrap up their seventh straight win over the Lakers, 108-96.
There were more cameras, more reporters and lots of purple and gold in the arena.
As Bryant continues to take and miss shots unlike anybody else in the league, the Lakers more closely resemble a reality television show concocted by the Time Warner Cable Network than a basketball team.
The Blazers held big leads, but their play allowed the Real Lakers of Los Angeles to hang in the game as Bryant chucked the night away, finishing with 21 points on 7-of-20 shots from the field.
The Blazers sensed the Lakers would be desperate for a win in the first night of a back-to-back, knowing the 37-year old Bryant likely wouldn’t play in the team’s next game.
“It was a team that probably looked at us as a game they could win,” Lillard said.
The Blazers got the win despite off nights from their third and fourth-leading scorers, Al-Farouq Aminu and Mason Plumlee who were a combined 4-for-11.
Blazers big man Meyers Leonard returned to the line-up Saturday night after missing the last seven games with a dislocated left shoulder.
Although Leonard returned, he wasn’t re-inserted into Portland’s starting line-up, where he had been in the other nine games he’s played.
Noah Vonleh got his fifth consecutive start with head coach Terry Stotts rewarding him for his solid play.
“There were minutes limitations (with Leonard) first of all,” Stotts said following the game regarding the decision to put Vonleh in the line-up. “I think Noah is good with the first group. I liked Meyers and Ed playing together, so we’ll see where it goes from there.”
After Saturday, the starters with Vonleh in Leonard’s place have outscored opponents by 11.5 points per 100 possessions according to NBA.com.
The difference has come on the defensive end where they allow 9.8 points per 100 possessions fewer.
Vonleh rewarded his coach early on with a steal that turned into a coast-to-coast lay-up.
Vonleh finished with four points and five rebounds in 19 minutes.
Leonard had seven points and six rebounds in 22 minutes off the bench.
”’My wind felt pretty good with the exception of the tail end of both of my stints,” Leonard said. “But that will come back pretty quick.”
McCollum got Portland going early, thanks to some pre-game words from his buddy and backcourt mate, Lillard.
“We were talking before the game and he said, ‘you’ve got to be aggressive,'” McCollum said of his pre-game conversation with Lillard. “I have some moments where I’m a little passive or I’m feeling it out and he said ‘don’t feel it out, just go out and attack.'”
After making his first couple of shots, the Blazers knew he had it going, and so did he.
“I looked at him and he was like ‘okay,'” McCollum said.
“We saw him hit that first one and now the ball went in so I tried to keep calling plays and keep finding him in transition,” Lillard said after the game.
After McCollum went to get his customary rest near the end of the first quarter with under 3 minutes left, he had as many points (14) as the Lakers team had as a whole.
The Lakers led by a basket early in the game’s first two minutes but fell behind by double digits in the blink of an eye.
That had a lot to do with McCollum who took great advantage of the open spaces provided to him by his teammates as well as the ineptitude of the Lakers defense.
McCollum had 19 points on 12 shots in the first half to lead the Blazers.
Bryant last played here on April 10, 2013, scoring 47 points in a Lakers win. While it wasn’t efficient and it came in a loss, Bryant has scored 20 points or more in 23 consecutive games in Portland.
Time and injuries have ravaged Bryant’s game. He is statistically one of the worst shooters in the league this season, shooting 31 percent from the field on more than 16 shots per game.
As rough as it was, Saturday night was better than most have gone for Bryant lately.
After the game, McCollum made a point to tell the Lakers legend how appreciative he is for his contribution to the game.
“I just told him, I’m a guy I’ve watched since I was a kid, he’s a guy I’ve looked up to and modeled by work ethic after,” McCollum said.
But McCollum perhaps forgot to mention the contributions Bryant made to the Blazers on Saturday.
The Lakers entered Saturday’s game on a four-game losing streak and the fewest wins (two) in the Western Conference.
Their No. 2 overall pick D’Angelo Russell is being freezed out of the offense at the expense of Bryant as he continues to fight off his basketball mortality at the team’s expense.
At halftime, Russell had four shots to Bryant’s 12.
Russell finished with 16 points and five assists on 6-of-11 shooting.
Even after given several opportunities to break the game open, the Blazers let the Lakers sideshow stick around.
Portland’s Gerald Henderson was seen putting up extra shots in a dimly lit Moda Center after Tuesday’s loss against the Chicago Bulls.
The extra work seemed to have paid off as Henderson scored nine points off the Blazers bench in just eight minutes of play.
The Lakers managed to make things interesting in the third quarter, cutting Portland’s lead that was as high as 17 down to five.
Lillard didn’t let the Blazers slip too much, however, scoring 14 of his 29 points in the third to keep the Lakers at bay.
But Portland held the Lakers to 20 points on 8-of-22 from the field in the fourth quarter close out the win.
The Blazers will travel back down to Los Angeles on Sunday to take on Blake Griffin and the Clippers on Monday.
