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Los Angeles Lakers: 3 things the Lakers need to do to take care of business

By Justin Morris

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA - AUGUST 18: LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers during the fourth quarter against the Portland Trail Blazers in Game One of the Western Conference First Round during the 2020 NBA Playoffs at AdventHealth Arena at ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on August 18, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA - AUGUST 18: LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers during the fourth quarter against the Portland Trail Blazers in Game One of the Western Conference First Round during the 2020 NBA Playoffs at AdventHealth Arena at ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on August 18, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /
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Los Angles Lakers, NBA playoffs
Los Angles Lakers, NBA playoffs Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images /

The Los Angeles Lakers may be in trouble in the NBA playoffs after losing Game 1 to the Portland Trail Blazers. Here are three things that must change.

Something is indubitably off with the Los Angeles Lakers in these NBA playoffs. And I know the recurring thoughts in my own head are shared with a great portion of the basketball population as one remarkable theme persists forward: “what’s going on?”

For the Portland Trail Blazers, the 2020 NBA playoffs began July 30 – the very first day that games tipped off in the NBA’s secluded isolation zone known as the Orlando Bubble. From that day forward, each of the eight “regular season” games the Blazers have played held a significance of near immeasurably important proportions, possessing the transitional power to either seal their playoff destiny with a string of pivotal wins, or effectively close their postseason window and send the team packing their bags into redundant infamy.

For their first-round opponent, the regular-season champion, top-billed Goliath squad known as the Los Angeles Lakers, their eight-game non-playoff NBA bubble tilt held far less fathomable weight: they basically served as unspoken training wheel grounds in preparation for the real deal once the games that actually counted rolled around.

And the difference in intensity between the two teams, once they matched up, was unmistakably obvious.

Portland, led by East Oakland’s finest outspoken leader Damian Lillard, came out with a hurried pace and furrowed aggression.

They had clear intentions to control the matchup’s tempo from the outset and imposed their will in several key areas that fans and analysts alike had pointed out as focal points for the contests – namely, creating ample space near the arc for their streaky-shooting lead guards, and outmanning Laker bigs with their length and size in the paint.

The Blazers did that and more, with Lillard riding 34 points, five respective rebounds and assists, and an array of homegrown jovial dance moves to rapper Too Short’s “Blow the Whistle” to a 100-93 Portland victory.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the stick, the Los Angeles  Lakers, who remain the perennial title favorite for many in the basketball world, are left with nothing but painstaking unanswered questions.

Questions, which if we’re counting, have not come few and far in between, and continue to multiply by the second.

“What’s wrong with Lebron? Where’s the shooting touch of these multi-millionaire shooters? What happened to their defense?”

And so on and so forth.

Now, it’s impossible to answer every pressing question that has plagued the Los Angeles Lakers’ futile efforts for domination as they attempt to reign supreme over the league. But one thing’s for certain, they’d better get it together, and do so expeditiously.

Join me as I embark upon solving the near-impossible jigsaw puzzle that exists as the Los Angeles Lakers. Here are three things they need to do to re-direct their ship away from the fatal iceberg that looms just ahead.