Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James was masterful in his team’s loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night, finishing the night with a triple-double.
Unfortunately, his teammates failed to rise to the occasion as the No.1-seeded Lakers lost to the No. 8-seeded Blazers, 100-93, in Game 1 of the seven-game series.
One of the major reasons why the Lakers lost was because their offense looked downright anemic at times.
In fact, a shooting percentage breakdown from the game showed how poorly the team shot when James was not personally orchestrating the team’s offense.
In the regular season, that was 55%/45%
— Dan Feldman (@DanFeldmanNBA) August 19, 2020
The numbers are highly troubling. That’s especially true when compared to the same statistic from the regular season.
The lack of shooting was seen across the board for the Lakers. Fellow star Anthony Davis added 28 points in the game, but only shot 8-of-24 from the field.
Only two other players on the team finished the game with double-digit scoring efforts.
On the whole, the team shot a dismal 35.1 percent from the field and a shockingly bad 15.6 percent from three-point land.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that it seems highly unlikely that this scoring drought sticks around for much longer.
While the Lakers are currently in the hole, 0-1, in the seven-game series, they have more than enough time to find their rhythm and move onto the next round of the playoffs.
