The Los Angeles Lakers continue to dominate their opponents, but they’re still trying to create their own identity. g
PORTLAND, Ore.– Friday night at the Moda Center wasn’t a pretty affair, although the points scored might say otherwise. But the Los Angeles Lakers win ugly even when they play beautifully as they did on Friday night, grinding the humming Blazers offense to a halt and winning yet another game with their physical brand of play.
A night that started with the feelings of nostalgia surrounding LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony became a war of attrition almost immediately. Portland’s Rodney Hood tore his Achilles tendon in the first quarter, Anthony Davis ran headfirst into Blazers Governor Jody Allen in the third, Rajon Rondo left at halftime with a hamstring injury and even Lakers guard Troy Daniels needing an additional post-game check-up after the game. And by the way, Blazers head coach Terry Stotts was ejected for the first time in his NBA coaching career while all of this went down.
But after the carnage of another battle was done, the mighty Lakers found themselves on top once again, beating the Trail Blazers to move to 20-3, tied with the Milwaukee Bucks for the best record in the NBA.
“It’s all about our mentality,” LeBron James said to LeBron Wire’s inquiry about where the physicality on defense starts. “And it’s what Coach Vogel preaches and our coaching staff preaches every day. Our job is to go out there and do it and we’ve been doing that for the whole year.”
“It starts with having physical guys on the roster,” Vogel, who earlier this season compared LeBron to a middle linebacker, said of the team’s physicality. “It’s part of the identity we’re trying to create. From Day 1 of training camp, we want to be a team that plays harder than our opponents and more physical than our opponents every night.”
That the Lakers are such a physical defense and also don’t foul a lot (11th in free-throw to field goal ratio) is even more impressive, but the Lakers go into every game trying to impose their physicality in the moments when hitting people is allowed in the game of basketball.
“It’s a delicate balance but it can be attained and achieved,” Vogel told LeBron Wire about the Lakers’ physical brand on of defense. “There are also opportunities to do it. Box outs? That’s time for people to hit each other. We embrace that, we embrace collisions at the rim, embrace contact, show your hands so you’re not trying to get fouls. And hopefully, we’re doing a good job of it.”
James enjoyed what he called a “special moment” on Friday night when he took the court again with his friend Anthony, but Lakers showed once again that they’re pretty “special” themselves, even though James and the squad aren’t getting too far ahead of where they are today. When LeBron was asked a question after the game about Jared Dudley’s tweets regarding critics of the Lakers schedule in the first part of the season, he tried to play coy but his gregarious nature couldn’t be held back.
“What did Jared say?” James said after a lengthy smile that elicited laughter from the gathered reporters. “Jared said that? I didn’t see it. We wanted to play well on this road trip and we did that.”
Anthony and James had several moments, a hug before the game and a few matchups during it but the best player on the court Friday night was Anthony Davis. Davis had a game-high 39 points to go with nine boards, as well as several incredible plays on the defensive end. Davis, who has been battling an illness throughout this three-game road trip, should stay sick, according to LeBron.
“Try and find as many sick people as possible and put him around them so he can continue to be sick,” James said when asked about how to keep Davis rolling. “That’s why. You see what he did on this road trip being sick? And he’s starting to feel a lot better and I don’t quite like it. I might sneeze on him a couple of times. Nah, man, it’s our job to get the ball to AD, put him in the right position to be successful offensively and make it as easy as possible for him so all he has to do is make plays. He feeds off of us and we feed off of him so he’s just been great all year.”
James also got to tussle with one of the players who took advantage of the down year for he and the Lakers last season, Mario Hezonja. Hezonja famously became a meme last season for his last-second block on LeBron during the Lakers visit to Madison Square Garden. LeBron went after him multiple times on the night, but he insisted it wasn’t something he envisioned when he took the court.
“He was seeking it out. He checked in the game and picked me up full court. I just wanted to try and be aggressive offensively but more importantly, if I draw two finding my teammates, that’s all it was about. I don’t really seek out guys on the floor, I just try to play the game the right way and see what happens.”
LeBron had a lot of those moments tonight as he added eight assists to go along with 31 points while he also led the Lakers with four made 3-pointers on a big 3-point night for them, connecting on 17 3s as a squad on Friday.
But while the offense was the big shiny object to look at for the Lakers tonight, the identity of the team is being built by physical thumping they brought throughout this 3-0 road trip.
Notes
- During a play in the second half, LeBron James accidentally collided with a server working courtside and knocked her over. James went to go pick her up, which led to a pretty amazing exchange on the court. “I was getting back on defense, I was out of bounds but I didn’t see her,” James said of the collision. “When I turned, she was already on the ground. I felt it was needed because it was a break in the play. Hezonja pushed AD down on the offensive rebound and I looked and had a chance to pick her up and apologize and ask her if she was okay. It was a pretty cool moment for me.”
- James was told after the game that the server said it was her coolest moment on the job. James is no stranger to moments like that, but he still doesn’t know what to say after. “It always does. That’s why I kind of don’t know what to say. I kind of get lost for words when you hear other people’s thoughts on a moment like that. Just humbled, I never take it for granted, to play the game that I play, to inspire the people I inspire and to make moments with people like that if it’s from kids or an adult in that instance.”
- LeBron was thrilled to be back on the court with his “brother,” Carmelo Anthony tonight. “It’s always special. I can’t even lie, it’s always special to be on the floor with a brother of mine. We got so much history, you know we’ve competed against each other since 2001 when it all started. In Colorado Springs, at the Junior Olympics. We’ve been on the same team with the Olympics and then just my brother. It’s always great to compete. It’s great to be on the same floor period. No matter if we are teammates or competing on our respective clubs.”
