Lakers drop high-scoring thriller to Blazers for 1st loss

LOS ANGELES — Sample sized be damned, the Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers ranked atop the league in scoring going into Tuesday night’s game at Crypto.com Arena.

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Lakers coach JJ Redick could only explain the early-season clash in two ways after the matchup lived up to the billing – as the teams produced a back-and-forth offensive clinic which ended with the Lakers (3-1) taking their first loss of the season in a 136-129 thriller.

“We just got broken down a lot,” Redick said of Portland shooting 59% from the field and going 18 for 36 from 3-point range.

But the inverse was also true, Redick said.

“It was also an incredible shot-making game,” he admitted, having watched Portland guard Ja Morant make a pair of running one-handed floaters in the final minutes and Damian Lillard drill a 3-pointer from the right wing to make it 135-129 with 42.8 seconds remaining to secure the road victory.

Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves followed Lillard’s make by missing a pair of 3-point attempts each on the following possession, allowing Portland to escape with its third win of the season.

Despite the loss, Doncic picked up where he left off in his 52-point showcase against the Utah Jazz on Sunday, but he couldn’t will the Lakers to a late lead despite scoring 41 points on 12-for-22 shooting to go with nine assists. The Slovenian star – who has now recorded back-to-back games of at least 40 points – made 11 of 13 free throws in a game that ended with the teams combining to take 71 free throws.

The Blazers used a 9-1 run in the fourth quarter – getting a 3-pointer each from Lillard, Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara – to scrape together an eight-point lead that powered their fourth-quarter comeback. The Trail Blazers made seven 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.

Morant and Avdija each had 23 points to pace the Blazers, while guard Jrue Holiday scored 22 and Lillard finished with 21.

“They went 50% from three, shot 41 free throws – it’s hard to win a game when another team has those types of stats,” said Lakers forward Ziaire Williams, who contributed 11 points, four assists and two steals.

Williams, just a day after the NBA fined him $2,000 for a later-assessed flopping violation, earned a technical foul on Tuesday for flopping during the fourth quarter, helping swing the game to a 125-121 lead for the Blazers with 3:36 remaining.

The 25-year-old forward, who moved backward with his arms extended outwards on the play, didn’t believe that he should have been called for the flopping technical.

“If the dude is pushing off me and my body is naturally going to waver back,” Williams said. “I didn’t think I flopped.”

Portland was called for a pair of technical fouls for flopping as well, one on Camara and another on Morant.

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“They’re looking for theatrical things,” Redick said.

The Lakers led by as many as 11 points, and held a lead for most of the game – gaining a momentum spurt at the end of the first half thanks to one of their nine new players.

Sandro Mamukelashvili made a pair of 3-pointers in the final minute of the second quarter – the latter one coming when Reaves found the Georgian-American big man on the right wing for a buzzer-beater to conclude the first half. The Lakers held a 73-68 advantage at the break, weathering a 13-point swing that became a two-point deficit midway through the second quarter.

Mamukelashvili finished the game with 17 points on 6-for-9 shooting, his best game with the Lakers so far after signing a four-year, $52 million contract with the franchise during free agency.

“It’s good to get going a little bit,” Mamukelashvili said. “I feel confident out there. I feel like I was at the right spots. The guys kept finding me. We had a little bit of momentum going … it’s always tough when you lose.”

Another one of the Lakers’ multi-year acquisitions made an impact during the third quarter, when Doncic found guard Collin Sexton (nine points) alone under the basket twice in a two-minute span to force a Portland timeout with the Lakers leading 101-93.

But the new Lakers, along with Doncic and Reaves (26 points on 8-for-13 shooting, seven assists), couldn’t hold on.

“We did enough offensively to win the game,” Reaves said of the Lakers, who shot 56% overall and 17 for 43 (40%) from behind the arc. “Defensively, we weren’t good.”

Sexton and Quentin Grimes combined to miss all eight of their 3-point attempts, with the Lakers shooting 48.5% from long range outside of the pair of reserve guards.

Lakers center Walker Kessler was quiet for the second consecutive game, contributing 13 points and eight rebounds in a muted effort while the Lakers lost the rebounding battle again (38-31).

“A little frustrated, but that’s natural,” Kessler said as he slumped into the chair behind the Lakers press conference podium.

The Lakers will turn around to play the second half of a back-to-back set on Wednesday night against the depleted Clippers at Intuit Dome in a game set for a 7:30 p.m. tip off.

“I’m glad we play tomorrow,” Kessler said. “It’s always best to play quickly after you have a poor game and a loss.”

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