Lakers respond to critics and trolls with massive Game 2 blowout of the Blazers

The Lakers‘ Game 1 loss brought a lot of questions. They answered nearly all of them with a Game 2 thumping of the Trail Blazers.

Portland’s bubble run to the playoffs was incredible but a first-round upset of the Lakers still seemed absurdly improbable. And then they came out and won Game 1, with Damian Lillard continuing his myth-building on a series of back-breaking 30-footers. The Lakers offense was an absolute train-wreck although, in retrospect, just missing open shots was at least as big a variable as any structural problems.

Still, the Lakers had to watch Charles Barkley goof around with his broom and read two days worth of internet chatter about how vulnerable they looked. They clearly took it personally.

In Game 2, Los Angeles came out fired up. They had an eight-point lead at the end of the first quarter. That swelled to 17 at halftime and the game was, for all intents and purposes, finished in the third quarter when that margin went as high as 33. Lillard looked mortal, going just 1-of-7 on 3-pointers and injuring his finger in the third quarter, an injury that hopefully won’t affect him for Game 3.

It’s a testament to how well the Lakers played that they didn’t even really need LeBron to be great. He finished with just 10 points on 11 shots, and 6 turnovers to 7 assists. But when Anthony Davis is doing his thing, the defense is swarming and everyone else is hitting their 3s, he can play like Lonzo Ball and still give the Lakers a huge win.

What else did you miss in Game 2 between the Lakers and Blazers?

MVP: Anthony Davis

Davis put up a big line in Game 1 — 28 points and 11 rebounds, but it took him 24 shots to do it, he was 0-of-5 from beyond the arc and really nothing came easily for him. He seemed determined to change the narrative in Game 2 and came out quickly, putting up 11 points and 5 rebounds in the first quarter. He finished the game with 31 points (on 21 shots) and 11 rebounds and didn’t even really need to play in the fourth quarter. But despite calling it a night early, he still had time to make a highlight or two.

Key lineup: The Blazers two-big units failed bigly

The Blazers, somewhat shockingly, used lineups with Jusuf Nurkic and Hassan Whiteside on the floor together to great effect in Game 1. They were on the court together for 11 minutes, in which the Blazers outscored the Lakers 30-17. The Lakers seemed much more prepared to attack those matchups in Game 2 and outscored Portland TK-TK when Portland had both bigs in the game.

Anthony Davis was the key, making some shots he missed in Game 2, attacking aggressively and being used in a variety of ways to keep Nurkic and Whiteside off balance.

If the Lakers can continue leveraging these minutes it’s a huge swing, primarily because Portland doesn’t have the depth to counter. The Blazers have primarily used an eight-rotation in both games and reducing minutes for Whiteside to keep him separated from Nurkic means having to use Mario Hezonja or Wenyen Gabriel more. It goes without saying, that’s just as big an advantage for the Lakers.

Checking in on Chaos and Chaos(er): Garbage time minutes for J.R. and Dion!

Plenty of garbage time minutes meant some extended run for Dion Waiters and J.R. Smith, and they did not disappoint. J.R. was very much back on his bulls**t, putting up 12 shots and nine 3-pointers in 21 minutes. He made just four shots total and added 4 turnovers. Waiters was actually very effective, going 2-of-3 from the field in 15 minutes and looking under control. It might be the kind of understated performance that earns him some non-garbage minutes in Game 3.