The Portland Trail Blazers’ playoff opponents have utilized the same defensive scheme over the past few years: Don’t let Damian Lillard or CJ McCollum score and force the ball into the hands of Al-Farouq Aminu and Moe Harkless. On October 18th — opening night of the 2018-2019 NBA season — the Los Angeles Lakers brought this same scouting report to the regular season when they faced the Blazers.
With 6:48 left in the second quarter of that dramatic opening night victory, Lillard ran in transition following a LeBron miss.