The Lakers didn’t make a three-pointer until Jake LaRavia hit one with 6:29 left in the second quarter. They finished 11-for-37 from deep against a Portland team that made 19. That’s a 24-point hole from three, and they beat the Blazers 124-118 on Friday night anyway.
Luka Doncic scored 53, and that’s the headline everywhere, as it should be. My take: the 53 kept the Lakers in the game, and Portland’s 24 turnovers won it. The Lakers had 15 steals and scored 28 points off turnovers to Portland’s 18, per ESPN’s box score, in a six-point game. Fifteen steals won’t happen every night, but the ball pressure behind them doesn’t depend on anybody’s jumper, and it’s the thing to carry to Detroit on Sunday.
The Math of a Bad Shooting Night
Start with the shot count. The Lakers took 93 field goals. Portland took 70. Both teams shot 37 free throws, so the gap is all possessions: 24 Portland turnovers against 11 for the Lakers, and 17 Lakers offensive rebounds against eight for Portland. The Lakers also won the paint 52-32.
That’s how you survive 29.7% from three. Twenty-three extra shots cover a lot of misses.
Compare it to the first meeting on Oct. 27, which Portland won 136-129. The Lakers had six steals that night and Portland turned it over 14 times, per ESPN. On Friday the steals more than doubled. Fifteen ties the Lakers’ season high, set at the Clippers on Oct. 28. Before Friday they were averaging about 10 a game. Portland’s previous high in turnovers this season, counting team turnovers, was 19, at Utah on Oct. 31.
The steals came from everywhere. Austin Reaves had four, Matisse Thybulle three, Ziaire Williams and Quentin Grimes two each, and LaRavia, Walker Kessler, Doncic and Sandro Mamukelashvili one apiece. Eight different Lakers took the ball from somebody.
Deni Avdija Had a Night He’ll Want Back
In my preview I said the Lakers had to stop fouling, with Deni Avdija and Damian Lillard first on the list. They didn’t, really, and I’ll get to that. They took the ball from Avdija instead.
He finished with 22 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds, which looks fine until you get to the eight turnovers. His previous high this season was three, per ESPN’s box scores, and he’d had 16 in seven games before Friday. Two of the eight were offensive fouls, one late in the first half and one 55 seconds into the third quarter. Reaves took it from him three times, including the steal that mattered most. Grimes and Thybulle each got him once.
Scoot Henderson, starting in place of the injured Ja Morant, added five turnovers in 23 minutes. Between them, Avdija and Henderson gave the ball away 13 times. That’s more than the entire Lakers roster did.
The Third Quarter Was the Game
The Lakers trailed 60-53 at halftime, and it would have been 10 if Doncic hadn’t banked in a shot from the far free-throw circle at the buzzer, which the Associated Press described as a 61-footer. Then they won the third quarter 34-15.
Doncic scored 20 of those 34 by himself, per the AP. But look at how the 17-0 run that flipped the game got going. Portland led 68-61 with 6:21 left in the quarter. Kessler scored on a putback. Reaves hit a runner. Doncic hit a step-back three to tie it. Then Grimes stole an Avdija pass and Ziaire Williams hit a three off it. Doncic added a floater. Lillard lost the ball out of bounds and Doncic hit another three. Mamukelashvili picked off Robert Williams III and fed Grimes for a layup. Three of the last five scores in the run came right after a Portland giveaway.
Portland had six turnovers in that quarter and scored 15 points. This was a team that hung 136 on the Lakers 10 days earlier.
Grimes and Mamukelashvili were both +19 in 20 minutes, the best marks on the team. I’ve argued that Mamukelashvili belongs on the floor beside Kessler, and this was the kind of night that makes the case: seven points, a steal, a block, and a share of the best plus-minus on the team.
What Didn’t Get Fixed
The fouling is still a problem. The Lakers were called for 29 fouls, the same number as in the first game. Portland shot 37 free throws, down from 41, which is progress in the way that losing by less is progress. Lillard went 8-for-8 at the line and Avdija went 9-for-14. LaRavia fouled out in 25 minutes and finished -16, the worst mark on the team. Collin Sexton played 11 minutes, went 0-for-4 and picked up five fouls.
And the fourth quarter got loose. The Lakers led 93-77 with 10:21 left. Portland scored 43 points in the quarter and cut the lead to four on four different occasions in the final 67 seconds. Doncic opened the fourth on the bench, and in the 4:42 before he came back, Portland outscored the Lakers 14-8. That’s the same leak I wrote about after the first game, when the Lakers lost the minutes Doncic sat. Portland also turned it over only four times in the fourth, and three of those came in the last 90 seconds.
Then the steals came back right when the Lakers needed them. Up 110-105 with 1:25 left, Reaves stole a pass from Avdija, drew a foul and made both free throws. After Doncic’s floater made it 116-110 with 27.7 seconds left, Reaves picked off Donovan Clingan on Portland’s next possession and dunked it. Four points off two steals in the final 85 seconds of a game decided by six.
Doncic Was Still Absurd
His line: 17-for-33 from the field and 14-for-18 at the line, and he was +16 in 38 minutes. The AP noted it was his 11th career 50-point game and his fourth with the Lakers, and his fourth straight game with 40 or more, which puts him with Elgin Baylor, Kobe Bryant and George Mikan as the only Lakers to do that in the regular season.
He came into the night with 308 points in eight games. He’s at 361 in nine now, a little over 40 a game. He also went 5-for-15 from three on Friday, and the Lakers won anyway.
That’s the real good news from a 53-point night. The Lakers are 8-2 and have won four straight, and on a night when their shooters went cold, they found another way to score. They stole it.
The road trip starts in Detroit on Sunday, and my Pistons preview says the matchup to win is Duncan Robinson’s threes. The number I’m watching there is Lakers steals. If they’re at 10 or better, I like their chances on a bad shooting night. If Doncic has to score 53 to win, they’ve already lost the thing that won Friday.