PORTLAND, Ore. — By taking care of their business last week, the Lakers afforded themselves the opportunities available during Sunday’s regular-season finale at Moda Center.
The top eight players in their rotation rested against the Portland Trail Blazers, with the Lakers looking to take advantage of a week without games before what they hope is a long playoff run.
The opportunity to play their end-of-bench players meaningful minutes against a Trail Blazers team that also sat most of their main players – which comes with the territory of Game 82 of the season.
So with a playoff berth and the Western Conference’s No. 3 seed for the playoffs already locked up, the Lakers concluded their regular season with a 109-81 blowout loss to the Trail Blazers.
Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith weren’t available.
Gabe Vincent, Jarred Vanderbilt and Jaxson Hayes were listed as available, but didn’t play, providing the Lakers’ main players with seven days off from games before they’re expected to host Game 1 of their first-round playoff series at Crypto.com Arena on April 19.
Jordan Goodwin was the lone player in the Lakers’ regular rotation to play on Sunday,
The Lakers’ opponent for their first-round playoff series wasn’t known as of the end of their regular-season finale, with multiple teams still competing for seeds Nos. 4-10 entering Sunday.
Rookie forward Dalton Knecht led the Lakers with 27 points (9-of-21 shooting), eight rebounds and two blocked shots, taking advantage of his increased playing time and involvement in the offense.
Shake Milton added 16, while Markieff Morris had season-highs of 11 points and six assists.
Rookie guard Bronny James finished with four points (2 of 10), six assists, four steals and three rebounds.
Dalano Banton led the Trail Blazers with 23 points.
Sunday was Knecht’s second double-digit scoring game of the last three weeks, after scoring in double figures in nine of 11 games from early-to-mid March.
“His rookie year is not over because he’s going to be, at some point, really important in the playoffs,” Coach JJ Redick said pregame. “For his rookie year, he’s gotten better. Even though the counting stats throughout the year don’t necessarily show [it]: ‘Well, you had a drop off from the early season stuff.’ That was great. It helped us win games. I don’t think anybody on our staff felt like Dalton was going to average 22 [points] for the season. That’s just not the way the team was going to work with [Anthony Davis] and LeBron, AR’s emergence, that wasn’t going to work.
“But I think where he’s really shown some growth over the last month or so is the stay-ready games, he’s been great in. And then whether it’s been four minutes, 12 minutes, the game last week against the [New Orleans] Pelicans where he really helped us, that’s what every rookie has to figure out is just how to become a pro and he’s becoming a pro.”
Sunday was Bronny James’ first NBA start, with Redick praising him pregame for how he’s handled his rookie season in light of the noise surrounding him.
“I give him an A+ – how he has personally handled a lot of attention, good and bad, he doesn’t ever break character,” Redick said. “He’s the same guy every day and he doesn’t allow the good attention to get to him. He doesn’t allow the bad attention to get to him and he just continues to work. I thought [South Bay Lakers coach] Zach [Guthrie] and his staff did a phenomenal job with him when he was down with the South Bay Lakers. He’s improved and we saw this particularly, I went to some early games and seeing his confidence grow from October, November, to really that second part of the G League season, post Showcase, was phenomenal.
“Every time he’s been on the court for us in the second half of the season, you can see that level of confidence and level of comfort. He’s a guy you can tell things to and they don’t let it affect their work or their attitude. I’m very high on him long-term being a part of our rotation.”