The Los Angeles Lakers played the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday night after returning home from a four-game road trip.

In this match, both sides were severely undermanned. LeBron James was the most prominent casualty, missing the game due to a calf contusion. Nevertheless, the Lakers managed to settle down, triumphing 116-110 to return to.500 at 5-5.

In LeBron’s substitute, Rui Hachimura took the opening tip and put the Lakers on the scoreboard right away with a dunk. The Lakers had an early lead, but after making several careless mistakes, the Trail Blazers tied the game at twelve.

The Lakers were actually behind 22–16 when Austin Reaves, their new sixth man, entered the game and ignited the team. He and Cam Reddish both made deep shots to knot the score once more.

After Reddish scored 10 points in the first quarter, Christian Wood converted a three-point play to give the Lakers a 31-28 advantage entering the second.

Early in the second quarter, Shaedon Sharpe began to heat up as the Trail Blazers went on a 14-3 run. Even the unheralded shooter Matisse Thybulle heated up with a couple corner triples.

Thybulle added another three-pointer to give the Trail Blazers a 57-56 lead at the half, but D’Angelo Russell finished the first half with some excellent playmaking, finding both Hachimura and Anthony Davis for easy baskets.

Russell’s impressive play carried over into the third quarter, when he scored two early baskets to give Los Angeles the lead again.

After then, Reaves scored five points in a row to give the Lakers their first double-digit lead, and they started to pull away. The Lakers led 91-80 at the end of the third quarter because to Davis’s dominance on both ends of the court after a largely quiet first half.

However, the Trail Blazers embarked on a 9-0 run as soon as Davis returned to the bench to start the fourth quarter, causing Darvin Ham to call a quick timeout. After that, Davis came back and put the game back in order with seven straight points. Jerami Grant then scored a wide-open 3-pointer to make it a 12-0 run and a one-point game.

But the Trail Blazers answered with another run, and the game stayed close until the very end.

With four straight scores, Hachimura gave the Lakers some crucial points in the closing minutes. The Lakers subsequently took a 108-103 lead as Taurean Prince stole the ball and made a layup in transition. But in the second half, Grant was on fire and answered right away with another three.

From there, like they had done all night, the Lakers got to work in the paint, scoring goals from Davis and Hachimura to secure the victory.