Episode Details

Nothing about Thursday's 110-102 win over the Blazers in Portland was easy. 

The Lakers were without Luka Dončić and Jarred Vanderbilt, both sitting out for injury maintenance on the second night of a back-to-back. So the Lakers had to reach deeper into the rotation, with guys like Trey Jemison III and Jordan Goodwin providing important minutes. Meanwhile, they arrived at the hotel well after 3 am, following Wednesday's loss. So sleep and rest weren't exactly easy to get. And then Portland, while well out of the playoff race in the West, has actually played quite well over the last month. As a team, they turned the ball over 24 times, and still shot the ball poorly from the perimeter. 

The Lakers needed this game badly, with a bruising stretch of games coming up. 

And yet... 

There are some wins where everything clicks and teams look great in the process. This was one the Lakers pulled out because ultimately, LeBron James (40 points) and Austin Reaves (32 points, seven assists) were in many ways excellent. They got important, timely contributions from players like Dorian Finney-Smith and Gabe Vincent. But mostly, they won because they played incredibly hard. Had that effort level been 5-10% lower, it wouldn't necessarily have looked that different on TV, but the Lakers would have almost certainly lost. 

Call it a character win, led by their stars. It's a game that shows this group gives a damn, and while there's a lot you don't want them to carry from game to game as far as execution goes—like, seriously, please do not carry over most of those things—it's a game that has importance because of what they ultimately had to do to win. They need to play better long term, obviously, and there is a lot about a post-Luka identity they need to figure out. obviously, but they learned something about the reservoir of grit and effort available to them when it's required. 

Aesthetically pleasing it wasn't, but satisfying? Yeah, it was. 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: The Lakers grind out a win in Portland. 

SEGMENT 2: LeBron and Reaves do amazing stuff, and it was haaaaard. 

SEGMENT 3: LA still needs an identity. 

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