Portland Trail Blazers overcome Dwight Howard’s huge night; Thump Lakers 116-106: NBA Recap
Dwight Howard produced a monstrous night with 33 points and 14 rebounds, Kobe Bryant hammered 30 points, Pau Gasol had 16 points and 9 rebounds, but the Los Angeles Lakers still failed to win their first game ever since acquiring
Howard and Steve Nash in the summer.
On Wednesday night, they were up against a spirited Portland Trail Blazers side which had all of its starters in double scoring figures, with three above 20 points.
Nicolas Batum led with 26 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals to pace the Trail Blazers who thumped the Lakers 116-106, handing the vaunted visitors their second defeat in two nights.
Damian Lillard, who was drafted as the number sixth pick back in June, impressed with 23 points and 11 assists on debut. Wesley Matthews added 22 points; LaMarcus Aldridge had 19 points on a 9 of 20 shooting effort while J.J. Hickson
notched up a double-double with 13 points and 10 boards.
The game also saw Steve Nash hurt himself. The point guard bumped knees with Lillard in the first half and was helped into the locker room. Nash returned in the second half, but struggled and had to be taken off. The exact nature
of the injury is not known as of now.
The Trail Blazers had an explosive first half, but the Lakers kept up. They trailed by as many as 9 early in the second quarter, but Howard and Bryant kept them in the game. Portland led by 62-57 at the break and quickly pushed
their advantage to 9 points in the third. Lakers continued to resist though, and a Steve Blake three pointer followed by a Howard layup with 3:27 to go in the fourth brought the deficit to 3, 76-79.
What followed were 13 consecutive points from the Trail Blazers which pretty much put the game to bed. The Lakers missed six shots and committed 3 turnovers during that stretch.
Lakers tried hard to bounce back in the last quarter, but Lillard and Matthews kept them at bay and stretched Portland’s advantage to as much as 19 with 9:11 remaining on the clock.
Lakers made a late push, but were left with a little too much to do.
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