Portland Trail Blazers blow 25-point halftime lead, lose 121-112 to Los Angeles Lakers: At the buzzer

On the night when the Portland Trail Blazers honored the memory of legendary broadcaster Bill Schonely who died Saturday, the team put forth a a performance that didn’t reflect

his vision of “Rip City,” against the Los Angeles Lakers at the Moda Center. In a back-and-fourth game featuring wild momentum swings and both teams winning a quarter by at

least 20 points, the Lakers scored 75 points in the second half outplayed the Blazers down the stretch when it mattered most to win 121-112. Portland allowed the Lakers to

jump out to an 18-4 lead before closing strong to trail just 33-26 at the end of the first quarter. Then the Blazers delivered a quarter of basketball that Schonely certainly

would have embraced. The Blazers shot 60.9% from the field while the Lakers shot 28.6% and committed six turnovers. Portland won the quarter 45-13 to lead 71-46 at

halftime. The plus-32 point advantage marked the greatest for a quarter in the history of the Blazers franchise. However, the Lakers regrouped at halftime and

dominated the third quarter, 40-20 to make the count 91-86 heading into the fourth. “They came out and picked up the aggressiveness and it was almost like we thought we

were just going to win,” Damian Lillard said. In the fourth, the Lakers slowly began to take control. The game stood at 103-103 with 5:44 to go before the Lakers closed the

game by outscoring the Blazers, 18-9 the rest of the way. Anfernee Simons led the Blazers with 31 points wile making 7 of 13 3s. Lillard scored 24 but hit on just 3 of 13

on 3s. He missed all four of his field-goal attempts in the fourth quarter and that included three 3s.