The Portland Trail Blazers continue to be the talk of the NBA bubble.
Portland, the eight seed in the Western Conference, defeated the West’s No. 1 seeded Los Angeles Lakers, 100-93, Tuesday night in Orlando.
As they have been since the NBA resumed play in Florida, the Blazers were led by Damian Lillard.
The eighth-year man out of Weber State scored a game-high 34 points and added five rebounds and five assists. Also pacing Portland were C.J. McCollum (21 points, five rebounds) and Jusuf Nurkic (16 points, 15 rebounds).
The Lakers, who trailed by as many as 16 points in the second quarter, used an 11-0 run to open the fourth to take the lead, only to have Portland storm back to secure the win.
LeBron James finished with 23 points, 17 rebounds and 15 assists, while Anthony Davis led the team in scoring with 28 points. Davis also pulled down 11 rebounds. Kyle Kuzma added 14 points and eight rebounds off the bench. The Lakers shot just 35% for the game, including 15.6% (5-32) from 3-point range.
The two teams will be back in action Thursday, with a 6 p.m. tipoff on ESPN.
The Clippers, who have a 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven series against the Dallas Mavericks, will resume their series tonight at 6 p.m. on TNT.
— Mitchell White
