Lillard Drops 48 on Kobe Farewell, Blazers Defeat the LA Lakers, 127-119

The Los Angeles Lakers said goodbye from Kobe Bryant with a loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, 127-119. I an emotional event, which was a farewell from one of the biggest players ever, and the guy who changed the course of the game, the guests from Oregon managed to be more composed and use the Lakers’ state of shock and grievance to post another win.

Before the start of the game, LeBron James had a tribute speech for Kobe, also mentioning all the passed away in that tragic helicopter crash.

“Tonight is a celebration,” he said. “Tonight, we celebrate the kid that came here at 18 years of age, retired at 38, and became probably the best dad we’ve seen over the past three years, man.”

It was an emotional moment for the entire Staples Center, with the majority of present crying, yelling, and expressing emotions in all sorts of ways.

https://twitter.com/espn/status/1223451756534910976

The game itself was very intense, with a playoff atmosphere on the court involved. The teams were trading buckets, staying close to one another, with high-intensity rhythm.

Eventually, one short burst at the end of the third and the start of the fourth period, brought the victory to the guests. The Trail Blazers made a 10-2 series, limiting the LAL to only two points in the opening three minutes of the closing sequence of the event.

After that, the guests kept that distance, not allowing the purple and gold to make any run or something similar.

Damian Lillard dropped 48 points on the Lakers’ defense, smashing all of his guards tonight. Dame was 17-for-30 from the field, and was 7-for-12 from behind the three-point line. He would turn out to be one rebound shy of a triple-double as he had 10 boards and nine dimes along with that.

“We come out here and play our hearts out,” said Lillard, following the game. ” The one thing we know we sure had in common with Kobe, is the love of this game. And we here, so we might as well come out and honor him in that way, and I thought we did that.”

Damian Lillard scores 23 PTS in the 3rd and has 42 total. Trail Blazers lead Lakers 108-96 on ESPN. pic.twitter.com/0TOu1wMaZo

— NBA (@NBA) February 1, 2020

Besides him, Hassan Whiteside had an excellent role among the Trail Blazers, finishing the game with 30 points and 12 rebounds, missing just one of his 14 attempts from the field. A truly remarkable performance.

CJ McCollum had 19, with 6 dimes and 5 assists.

The Trail Blazers (22-27) don’t have too much time to rest, as they have a clash against the Utah Jazz already tomorrow. After that, Terry Stotts’ guys are traveling to Denver to meet the Nuggets on Tuesday, and come back home to face the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday.

Antony Davis scored 37 and had 15 rebounds with 6 assists and five blocks. AD was giving his best, but in certain situations, it seemed as if he played alone against the rivals. LeBron scored 22 points, shooting 9-for-22 from the floor, adding 10 assists and 8 boards. Kyle Kuzma had 17 with 15 rebounds.

“We wanted to win this game really bad. But I couldn’t be more proud of how hard our guys played,” said coach Vogel after the match.

Meanwhile, the Lakers (36-11), too, have a second of back-to-back matches tomorrow, only theirs will be in Sacramento against the inconsistent Kings. Subsequent, the purple and gold come back home for two contests, both of them against the teams from Texas, San Antonio on Tuesday, and Houston on Thursday.