{"id":541989,"date":"2026-01-17T03:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T03:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/541989\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T03:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T03:45:12","slug":"lakers-vs-blazers-discussion-injury-report-how-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/541989\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers vs Blazers Discussion, Injury Report, How To Watch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Lakers (24-15) will travel to Portland this weekend, where they will take on the Blazers (20-22). This is the third and final meeting between the two teams.<\/p>\n<p>Start time and TV schedule<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Watch: NBA TV, Spectrum Sportsnet<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">With exactly 39 games in the books, it\u2019s now fair to conclude that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverscreenandroll.com\/lakers-analysis\/105353\/lakers-hornets-recap-box-score-highlights-defense-jj-redick-luka-doncic\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LA\u2019s defense is bad.<\/a> Los Angeles has way too many one-way players who are unequipped on the defensive side of the ball.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">While likely only a trade can significantly upgrade the Lakers\u2019 defense, which now ranks 26th in the NBA, no such deal will happen in time for this upcoming matchup against the Blazers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">So, the question is, who will step up and bring the physicality and energy on defense? Can Marcus Smart do it? Will Jake LaRavia have a big game? Or will everything fall on LeBron James with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.silverscreenandroll.com\/lakers-injury-report\/105469\/lakers-injury-report-luka-doncic-deandre-ayton-jaxson-hayes-out-questionable-left-groin-knee-soreness-hamstring-status-blazers#comments\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Luka Don\u010di\u0107 out<\/a> and other key Lakers listed as questionable?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Entering this contest, the Blazers have won seven of their last 10 games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">They\u2019ve defeated the Houston Rockets twice in the last two weeks, as well as the San Antonio Spurs and Boston Celtics. They\u2019re also very unpredictable to gauge because a few of their players, like Deni Avdija, Jrue Holiday and Jerami Grant, are listed as either doubtful or questionable on their injury report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Hopefully, the Lakers team that shows up on Saturday is the one that plays very well on the road (13-7). The one that plays like they\u2019re tired of their inconsistent ways and the one that\u2019s aggressive and controls the pace from start to finish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">They\u2019ve done it in the past, so there\u2019s no excuse for them not to do so on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lakers (24-15) will travel to Portland this weekend, where they will take on the Blazers (20-22). This&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,64012,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-541989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lalakers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-los-angeles-lakers-discussion","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangeleslakers","18":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115908386771000209","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}