Los Angeles Lakers: Three things to watch for against Portland
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the hottest teams in basketball, winners of five straight. The Lakers are set to host the Trail Blazers Monday night.
Things have been going steady in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Lakers are winners of five straight games, undefeated since the All-Star Break. Lonzo Ball has returned from injury, Isaiah Thomas is proving a lot of doubters wrong and despite an injury to Josh Hart and buying out Corey Brewer, the Lakers were able to defeat the sixth-seeded San Antonio Spurs on Saturday.
The playoffs are becoming more of a possibility with every win in the books. There is still some work to be done, however, the Los Angeles Lakers currently sit 6.5 games behind the eighth-seed. While it may be a hard road to get to the postseason — with so many teams in the mix — that road is at least conceivable now.
LA won all four of its road contests, defeating the Kings, Hawks, Heat and Spurs. Now, LA is ready for a short two-game homestand before heading to Denver for a quick turnaround back to LA.
The next six games are extremely important for the Lakers as well. LA faces the eighth-seeded Denver Nuggets twice, the Cavs are coming to town for the first time since the trade and LA will travel north to face the Warriors.
The Lakers do have one “throw away” game against the Orlando Magic. Aside from that, all six games are very important, starting with Monday night. The Portland Trail Blazers are coming to town as the third seed, only 8.5 games ahead of the 11th-seeded Lakers.
LA has won five games in a row; Portland six. Something has to give. Here are three things to watch for in the match-up.