Lakers Lose To The Portland Trailblazers 101-106 | Lakers Fall To Play-In Tournament | AD 36 Pts 

Lakers Lose To The Portland Trailblazers 101-106 | Lakers Fall To Play-In Tournament | AD 36 Pts Anthony Davis, Lakers Fall to No. 7 Seed as Damian Lillard Shines in Blazers Win Faced with arguably their biggest game of the season, the Portland Trail Blazers muscled past the Los Angeles Lakers 106-101, breaking a tie for the sixth seed in the Western Conference, clinching a season-series victory over the defending champions and retaining control of their play-in tournament destiny. Only the top six seeds in each conference will advance to the first round of the postseason automatically. Teams that finish seventh through tenth place will participate in a single-elimination play-in tournament beginning May 18. One night after getting blown out by the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center—a game that saw Anthony Davis exit after nine minutes with back spasms—a shorthanded Lakers team suffered its eighth loss in its last 10 games. Without LeBron James and Dennis Schroder available, L.A. couldn't get enough production from Davis and Alex Caruso to get past Damian Lillard and a Blazers team playing in front of fans at Moda Center for the first time all season. Notable Performers Damian Lillard, PG, Portland Trail Blazers: 38 points, 7 assists, five three-pointers C.J. McCollum, SG, Portland Trail Blazers: 21 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds Anthony Davis, PF, Los Angeles Lakers: 36 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists Alex Caruso, SG, Los Angeles Lakers: 18 points (season high), 6 rebounds, 2 assists Lakers' Slide Reaches New Low This season was always going to be a challenge for Los Angeles. After fighting through one of the most emotional seasons in recent memory to win the championship, the Lakers were rewarded with the shortest offseason in NBA history made even more difficult by a compressed schedule. Still, it's jarring to see how far the defending champs have fallen after spending what offseason time they had adding depth to their roster. But not even Marc Gasol, Ben McLemore, Montrezl Harrell, Dennis Schroder or Andre Drummond can make up for what LeBron James adds to the team night in and night out. And while he's out, the Lakers look about as incomplete as they were before he arrived in L.A. That Davis seemed to find his offensive rhythm in his ninth game back from an Achilles and calf injury may be the lone bright spot on Saturday. The forward's 36 points, 12 rebounds and five assists were the most he recorded in each category since February 12. Yet on Friday that only equalled Lillard's total. It wasn't enough to overcome it. Now Los Angeles is squarely in the play-in tournament and no longer in control of its own destiny. It'll need plenty of help to ensure a first round berth. A healthy James taking the floor again would be a start, but that might not be enough at this point. After running through an unprecedented postseason last Summer, the 2021 playoffs may prove an even bigger challenge for one of the league's marquee franchises—not to mention its biggest star. So Z Nation, what did you think about the Lakers falling in the Play-In tournament?? Comments down below 💭☑️ Like and Share my videos 👍🏼☑️ ✅ Subscribe to my channel ZSPN on YouTube ✅ Thank you all for watching ZSPN on YouTube http://youtube.com/c/ZSPNSports Check out my podcast, ZSPN , on Anchor! https://anchor.fm/zspn Like my page on Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/ZSPNSports/ Follow me on Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/zspn_sports Follow me on Instagram: ZSPN_Sports Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3I60o3Wt-X421fEiJSjziA/join 💜GO LAKERS💛