Four Blades and One Fist: The Lakers Lost Because They Only Had One Luka

The Lakers’ first loss will be remembered on the scoreboard as Damian Lillard’s step-back three with 43 seconds left. The game was decided earlier. During the four-plus minutes Luka sat, Portland ripped off an 11-1 run. All five Lakers moved. The ball moved. Every possession ended the same way: someone forced a shot, a long rebound kicked out, and Morant was already waiting near midcourt.

Luka scored 41. Reaves had 26. The two fists swung hard. Portland had Avdija, Lillard, Morant and Holiday all above 20. In the preseason, people worried Portland had too many guards and not enough balls. Tonight the problem looked different. Four blades came out of the sheath in turn. Trap one, and another cut in from the weak side.

I. Same Skeleton, Two Kinds of Flesh

Both teams started from the same mold: a tall ball-handling core from the Eastern Mediterranean, Luka and Avdija, next to a rim-running giant, Kessler and Clingan. Pick-and-roll to start. Roll to finish. Pop to keep spacing. Same skeleton. The flesh and blood were a tier apart.

Luka’s secondary handler is Reaves. Reaves can catch and initiate again. He can shuttle the ball to the weak side when Luka is trapped. Behind Avdija stood Lillard, Morant and Holiday. One team had a two-handler axis. The other had a four-handler rotation. The Lakers had one Luka. Portland had four men who could start a possession on their own. The gap showed up on the rotation sheet.

Camara is one of the best on-ball defenders in the game. He could not stop Luka’s 41. He stayed with the feet. He got his hands in. He wrapped Luka up tight. Luka backed him down with a shoulder full of muscle. On the 2+1 Camara gave up in the first half, he landed, did not look at the referee, lowered his head and tugged at the hem of his jersey. He had not defended badly. He had defended to the limit and still been run over. Against a handler with Luka’s power, pace and vision, you can make him uncomfortable. You cannot make him stop.

Avdija is a good passer. He is not Luka. In the first half, Avdija and Clingan ran a Luka-and-Kessler-style pick-and-roll dive. The ball had barely left his hand when Kessler rotated from the weak side and swatted it out of bounds. On the possession where Qiyal trapped Avdija to spark a fast break, Avdija glanced at the corner before the trap arrived. In that glance, Qiyal’s hand swiped down on the ball. Same type of tall ball-handling core. When Luka is trapped, he can find Sexton twice under the rim. When Avdija is trapped, his pass arrives half a beat late, and the fast break is gone. That is the tier gap between cores of the same type. No tactic patches it.

II. The Second Quarter

The second quarter showed the pattern.

Portland moved the ball from strong side to weak side, then back again. Morant is not a good outside shooter. He roamed the weak side and pulled the Lakers in two directions. One possession was typical. Morant started from the corner. He took one step along the free-throw line. Two Lakers defenders turned their necks at the same time. The ball was already at the top of the key to Avdija. Avdija did not hold it. He swung it to Lillard on the other side. Lillard rose and hit the three. Morant never touched the ball on that step. He had dragged two defenders away with him.

On the Lakers’ end, Reaves called for another pick-and-roll and lobbed it back to Kessler for an alley-oop. A pretty play. A thin kind of pretty. The Lakers tried to develop new ideas. Luka blocked Lillard’s three, pushed the pace himself, pulled up, waited for three Portland defenders to get back, then assisted Gremes on the drive. In the third quarter Luka had five assists, including two straight finds to Sexton under the rim out of traps. Those changes still revolved around Luka’s gravity. After Mamu hit a key three in the first half, he said, “With Luka’s gravity out there, we just need to get the ball in the right spots.” True enough. Flip it around and it means the Lakers have only one Luka. Gremes and Sexton’s cuts and finishes did not cover up their 1-of-8 shooting from deep. The Lakers had new ideas. The new ideas had too low an output to carry the few minutes when Luka sat.

III. The Functional Gap at Center

Clingan did not overpower Kessler in the paint tonight. He hit two threes and a midrange jumper. “Kessler, you can’t do this, can you?” That line points to a functional gap.

One possession: Kessler scored on an offensive rebound putback. Next time down, Clingan caught the ball at the top of the key. Kessler stood one step inside the free-throw line. He raised his hand halfway, then put it down. Clingan shot. Three. The next possession, Kessler tried to dive to the rim. Avdija grabbed the rebound and pushed immediately. By the time Kessler reached midcourt, Avdija had already put the ball in the basket. You’re a big man and you went to attack the rim. No time to get back, huh?

Those two possessions showed the functionality of the modern center. Kessler can protect the rim, finish lobs, crash the offensive glass. Clingan can pop, drag Kessler out of the paint, and widen Avdija’s handling space. The Lakers’ center-as-roll-axis is fine. The problem comes when Luka is trapped and Reaves is glued. Kessler cannot catch outside and initiate again.

The Lakers’ rotations were not pretty. Portland spread the floor completely: 18-of-36 from deep. Everyone except Rob could shoot. Laravia had three steals tonight. Qiyal had two. The numbers were not bad. The price was Laravia’s three-point foul on Lillard. A steal is a gamble. A rotation is discipline. The Lakers won a few gambles and lost more. Portland did not need a perfect possession every time. As long as the ball moved among four handlers, the Lakers’ weak side was bound to open up.

IV. The 11-1 Run

In the fourth quarter, with Luka out, Morant drove and kicked to Avdija for a three to complete the 11-1 run. That stretch decided the game possession by possession.

First possession: Morant used a Clingan screen. The Lakers switched. Morant lobbed to the rolling Clingan. Kessler rotated over. Clingan kicked back to Avdija at the top of the key. Three.

Second possession: Lillard caught on the weak side. A Laker flew out at him. Lillard pump-faked once, sidestepped, pulled up. Two.

Third possession: Holiday grabbed a long rebound, pushed himself, did not wait for the offense to set, and slipped it to the trailing Morant. Floater.

Fourth possession: Avdija had it. The Lakers trapped. The ball swung to Morant on the weak side. Morant took one dribble and gave it back to Avdija. Three.

Four possessions. Four different initiators. The Lakers trapped every time, rotated every time, and were half a beat late every time. Luka was still +7 tonight. The moment he sat, the Lakers could not stay with Portland. Reaves is good enough as a secondary handler. He cannot absorb the full output of the Luka-and-Reaves axis by himself. Scoot will still throw the ball out of bounds sometimes. Portland has flaws too. Their guard advantage was used to the limit. One flaw was covered by four handlers.

V. 43 Seconds

Late in the fourth, with the Lakers down one, Morant hit a floater to put Portland up three. Then came the most moving moment of the game.

Lillard, the returning veteran, not even 1.9 meters tall, tried to block the giant Kessler. He missed. He landed, patted his pant leg, and called for the ball. Kessler stepped to the free-throw line. He bounced the ball two more times than usual. First free throw, short. Second free throw, short. The Portland assistant coach tucked the clipboard under his arm and began capping his pen. Final 43 seconds: Lillard hit a step-back three and closed it out.

So far this season, Lillard is 7-of-14 from two and 12-of-28 from three. His shot is not old. Morant’s waist is still young. Avdija’s shoulder, Holiday’s coldness. Four guardians.

The Lakers have one Luka.

VI. Closing

After the game, Kessler walked to the free-throw line, picked up a ball that had bounced there, bounced it twice, and shot an uncontested free throw. It went in. He tossed the ball to the referee and walked back to the locker room.

On the opening tip, he was the one who tapped the ball to Luka. With 43 seconds left, he stood near the free-throw line, his hand still raised.