{"id":421292,"date":"2026-01-18T13:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T13:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/421292\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T13:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T13:42:10","slug":"injury-riddled-lakers-fall-to-portland-for-fifth-loss-in-six-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/421292\/","title":{"rendered":"Injury-riddled Lakers fall to Portland for fifth loss in six games"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PORTLAND, Ore.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Before the Lakers<\/a> took the court Saturday night, they added two more starters and a key reserve to the injured list. But the Lakers still had LeBron James<\/a> and they hoped he could carry them past Portland.<\/p>\n

Starters Luka Doncic<\/a> (left groin soreness) and Deandre Ayton<\/a> (left knee soreness) did not play. In the fourth quarter, Marcus Smart<\/a> went down amid a pile of players in the lane and eventually limped to the locker room never to return.<\/p>\n

As for James and the rest of the Lakers, all of the injuries were too much to overcome in a 132-116<\/a> loss to the Trail Blazers at the Moda Center.<\/p>\n

Smart had 25 points before he went to the locker room. James had 20 points but was just six for 16 from the field. He had nine rebounds and eight assists for a Lakers team that has lost five of its last six games.<\/p>\n

Drew Timme was a positive for the Lakers, scoring a career-high 21 points. Rui Hachimura and Maxi Kleber each had 11 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, nobody is feeling sorry for us, nor are we looking for it,\u201d James said. \u201cThe guys that are available, we got to go out there and play our game, play the way we want to play offensively and defensively and just try to right the ship until we get whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaedon Sharpe led Portland (21-22) with 25 points. Jerami Grant and Caleb Love each scored 22 points and Donovan Clingan finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds.<\/p>\n

\"Lakers <\/p>\n

Lakers guard Marcus Smart shoots over Portland center Donovan Clingan in the first half Saturday.<\/p>\n

(Amanda Loman \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Doncic, who underwent an MRI and is listed as day-to-day, was dealing with the injury all of last week despite playing against the Kings, Hawks and Hornets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was an accumulation of a longer week, more lingering, if anything,\u201d Lakers coach JJ Redick said before the game.<\/p>\n

The Lakers (24-16) aren\u2019t sure if Ayton will play against Toronto on Sunday. The center is day-to-day with left knee soreness. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe took a hit in his knee and there was no swelling, just some soreness,\u201d Redick said.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The Lakers were also without backup center Jaxson Hayes, who didn\u2019t play against the Trail Blazers because of left hamstring tendinopathy. Redick said there\u2019s a chance Hayes could play Sunday.<\/p>\n

With so many starters out, Redick said he liked his team\u2019s competitive \u201cspirit\u201d against the Trail Blazers.<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s been hard to win consistently with so many key players out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been our season,\u201d Redick said. \u201cYou get one guy healthy, another guy gets injured. You get one guy back and another guy gets injured. Two guys go out tonight and you play without your two centers. So, it\u2019s been our season.\u201d<\/p>\n

James missed his first five shots in the first quarter, finishing the frame going one for seven from the field for just two points.<\/p>\n

The Lakers were called for 13 fouls in the first quarter alone, leading to 22 free-throw attempts for the Trail Blazers \u2014 a big reason why they opened a 40-27 lead after the first 12 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the whistle was very shot in the first quarter,\u201d James said. \u201cI think there were like maybe 17, 18, 20 free throws in the first quarter. It\u2019s hard to set your defense with that type of situation. But we gave ourselves a chance a couple of times, but it was an uphill battle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTLAND, Ore.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Before the Lakers took the court Saturday night, they added two more starters and a key reserve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,1545,12839,221774,1862,14377,221773,39242,7896,11182,590,321,7640,10227,118505,85,8825,7642],"class_list":{"0":"post-421292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-day","11":"tag-deandre-ayton","12":"tag-fifth-loss","13":"tag-game","14":"tag-groin-soreness","15":"tag-injury-riddled-lakers","16":"tag-knee-soreness","17":"tag-lebron-james","18":"tag-locker-room","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-point","21":"tag-portland","22":"tag-rebound","23":"tag-redick","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-sunday","26":"tag-trail-blazers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}