The Los Angeles Lakers lost a near must-win game to the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday. Not only did the loss drop them to No. 7 in the standings — putting them in play-in tournament territory — it also gave the Trail Blazers the tiebreaker over L.A.
Lakers coach Frank Vogel did all he could with what he had but simply couldn’t overcome the players they were missing.
The Lakers faced the Trail Blazers without all of their top three ball handlers in LeBron James, Dennis Schroder and Talen Horton-Tucker. Despite that, they played a close game all the way to the end, mainly thanks to incredible performances by Anthony Davis and Alex Caruso.