LeBron's Lake Show Finds No Safe Harbor in Portland

Published on 18-Oct-2018 by Biff BoJock

Basketball - NBA    NBA Daily Update

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LeBron's Lake Show Finds No Safe Harbor in Portland

As home openers go, this one was ... different.

Portland Trail Blazers -- and Seattle Seahawks -- owner Paul Allen had just died suddenly when the non-Hodgkins lymphoma he seemed to have beaten years ago returned and, this time, finished its insidious job.

Dude was an involved governor, so the pall cast in this one was real.

 

It's one of the few times LeBron James has been upstaged at a basketball game.

Moreover, this wasn't one of the few times a visiting team has won a game when it's Portland's home opener. After their 128-119 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers tonight, they've run their NBA-record Opening Night winning streak to 18 games.

 

After contributing 26 points and serving as LA's de facto field general, James reiterated his 2018-2019 mantra that it's gonna take time to get this team up to speed.

He's right, of course, but the Lakes look nowhere near what Luke Walton was hired to sort out last season.

 

Blazers coach Terry Stotts had to be pleased with his bench strength, as dudes like Nick Stauskas and Zach Collins kept Rip City in it until the ususal suspects could get their act together.

Their guards, for example, shot 9-29 through three quarters. Sucky.

 

For a team devoid of dimes last season -- Portland brought up the rear in assists last season -- the Portland bench showed that could change. They got 16 of the team's 21 assists, many of which set up Stauskas to score 24 points in 27 minues.

Better yet, five of those were treys.

 

Collins blocked 6 shots, scored 6 points, collected 6 boards, and dished 2 dimes. It was enough to keep the Blazers' only real pivot, Jusuf Nurkić, riding pine for the fourth quarter.

Portland's Opening Night winning streak is all well and good, but until they put something like that together in spring, they're gonna remain as first-round fodder.

By then, they might be fending off a quickly developing Laker squad.