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The Los Angeles Lakers managed to make it to overtime in an ugly preseason game but couldn’t finish off the Portland Trail Blazers in a 109-106 loss. Damian Lillard went off for 30 points in 26 minutes but rested through the fourth quarter and extra time, otherwise this would have likely been a four-quarters-and-out game.
D’Angelo Russell’s momentum from Games 2 and 3 of preseason came to a screeching halt. Russell missed all nine of his three-point attempts — many of them perfectly fine shots in the flow of the offense — making for a long night for the sophomore guard.
It was another solid night for Nick Young, though, who was the Lakers’ main outside threat while Russell struggled. Young drained four of his seven three-point attempts, had a handful of nice defensive possessions, and even came up with two nice dimes. He finished the game with 14 points. Jordan Clarkson also provided some much-needed scoring power off the bench, leading the team with 15 points.
Julius Randle had his first double-double of preseason with 13 points and 13 rebounds, including another finish with his right hand. He was as surprised as the rest of us it could do that:
tfw you realize you have a right hand pic.twitter.com/35s6P0MtO6
— Drew Garrison (@DrewGarrisonSBN) October 12, 2016
There were few positives for the Lakers, who struggled to deal with the Trail Blazers’ deep bench rotation in overtime even while a lineup featuring most of the key players closed things out for LA. The loss didn’t hurt as a result so much as watching the core group flounder against the backups’ backups.
Preseason is preseason, so there’s no need to be overly down on this one. The team looked tired, particularly Russell, which isn’t a great sign going into a heavy week of games. The Lakers are set to hit the road to Las Vegas for a game against the Sacramento Kings on Thursday, followed by their first-of-two games against the Golden State Warriors on Saturday.