PORTLAND, Ore. — It wasn’t a case of deja vu, because the situation the Lakers were in on Monday night was eerily similar to exactly one week ago.
They were once again down most of their ball-handlers against a stingy Portland Trail Blazers team, with Marcus Smart replacing Austin Reaves (groin soreness) as the team’s primary ball-handler.
But unlike a week ago, when they needed every bit of Reaves’ 41-point performance to make the game competitive until eventually losing the game, the Lakers weren’t over-reliant on one player in their 123-115 victory at Moda Center.
It was the steady scoring and interior presences from Deandre Ayton (29 points on 14-of-19 shooting to go with 10 rebounds) and Rui Hachimura (28 points on 10-of-15 shooting) that kept the Lakers’ offense afloat even as the Blazers cranked up their defensive pressure.
It was the defensive playmaking from Smart (three steals to go with five assists and nine points) and Jake LaRavia (11 points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals) that helped the Lakers get the timely stops they needed.
And it was two of the Lakers’ young guards – two-way contract signee Nick Smith Jr. (25 points on 10-of-15 shooting to go with six assists) and second-year ball-handler Bronny James (six assists, five points) – providing the team with the requisite offensive boost.
And when it looked like the Blazers, who entered Monday on a three-game winning streak, were threatening the Lakers’ own winning streak, Smith was the one who helped the Lakers close out their fourth straight win.
“He’s a special talent with an ability that not a lot of people have,” Smart said of Smith. “It was just good to finally see him able to go out there and show that ability. We needed it. I’m happy for him. We all are and much well-deserved. I’m happy for him.”
Smith made back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Lakers a 117-105 lead with 2½ minutes left.
And immediately after Portland’s timeout, Smith assisted Ayton on a layup to give the Lakers their game-best 14-point lead – an advantage they held for the rest of the game to remain undefeated (4-0) on the road and improve to 6-2 overall.
“He just took the game over,” Coach JJ Redick said of Smith. “And we needed his handle, and we needed his wiggle. It was, truthfully, it was a perfect game for him.”
Monday was the sixth time Smith, a 21-year-old third-year guard, scored at least 20 points in an NBA game.
“They’ve seen what I can do in training camp, and the coaching staff is definitely putting an emphasis to go out there and play my game,” Smith said. “If they’re pressuring you, go make a play. That’s something that I haven’t gotten in a long time. So it’s definitely something to get adjusted to. Obviously, I’m gonna make some mistakes, turnovers, stuff like that. I’m still young, and I still got a lot more to go in this league.”
Deni Avdija had 33 points and six rebounds to pace the Blazers.
Shaedon Sharpe contributed 23 points, seven rebounds and three steals for Portland, while Jerami Grant scored 18 points off of the bench and Toumani Camara added 14 points, seven rebounds and a pair of steals.
The Lakers’ victory moved them to 3-1 in games without Luka Doncic (lower left leg contusion injury management) – all of which have included LeBron James’ continued absence because of sciatica in his right side.
And in each game, the Lakers have had players step up in light of injuries to their stars.
It was mainly Reaves in the Oct. 26 road win over the Sacramento Kings, a game in which the fifth-year guard scored a career-high 51 points. And in last Wednesday’s road win against the Minnesota Timberwolves, it was Reaves once again leading the way with the game-winning shot, but with support from LaRavia, Hachimura, Ayton and Dalton Knecht, who had eight points and four rebounds as a starter on Monday night.
And with all three of their stars sidelined on Monday, the Lakers once again rose to the occasion, showcasing their internal belief no matter who is unavailable.
“It’s not an easy thing to do, and it’s not something that you just can say and then a guy’s gonna believe,” Redick said. “It’s a really organic thing. And that’s why I think the things that we’ve preached from day one are so important. We recognize we need to be in great shape, but the communication and the habit piece, when the group can do that at a really high level every single night you can win games when you’re without a few players.”
Redick added: “And maybe the idea that being short-handed is a little bit of a misnomer. I told the guys before the game, ‘We have enough in this locker room to win this game.’ My belief level in this group that’s here in Portland right now, that’s in uniform right now is as high as it’s been. I’ve been around this enough to know when a group is connected. You still gotta go out and play, you gotta go out and play hard and you gotta go out and make shots. Our guys did all of those things.”
After trailing 33-24 at the end of the first quarter, Hachimura (12 second-quarter points) and Smith helped keep the Lakers in the game. Smith scored eight straight points within a minute to cut the Lakers’ deficit from eight (49-41) to two (51-49), with the Lakers trailing by one (53-52) entering halftime.
But Smith’s halftime was disrupted by sickness catching up to him, leading to him throwing up in the tunnel leading to their locker room during the game’s intermission.
“It was funny, when he made it run, he scored two 3s or something, he came back to a timeout and I was like, ‘Hey, keep going’,” Hachimura recalled. “And he’s like, ‘my stomach hurts.’ And he left. I told [the] coaches, ‘Hey, Nick left, just left, you gotta put somebody on.’ But I knew that he was gonna have a good game.”
Smith didn’t allow the sickness to slow him down. He led the Lakers with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting (3 for 4 from behind the arc) and four assists in 17 minutes in the second half.
“He was just going crazy,” Hachimura said. “I’m so happy for him. Even [in] training camp, he was always one of the best guys, score the ball, it was a good performance by him.”
Smith, a consensus five-star recruit in the 2022 class and a first-round draft pick by the Charlotte Hornets in 2023, joined the Lakers on a two-way contract on Sept. 29 after the Hornets waived him after just two seasons.
And after playing 30 combined minutes across two games in the Lakers’ previous seven games, Smith stepped up.
“I have such empathy for a guy who’s put in a situation like that, and kinda has to deliver for us to have a chance to win a game,” Redick said. “And he was awesome. Just [a] really gutsy, really tough mentally for him to come in and do that.”
The Lakers return to Southern California to host the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday before kicking off a five-game road trip.