The Los Angeles Lakers play host to the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 2 of the Western Conference first-round playoffs in Orlando on Thursday.

The Trail Blazers (1-0) looked like me of the most dangerous teams coming out of the regular season bubble and they carried that over into their Game 1 victory. What was really impressive was their defense, holding the Lakers to just 35 percent from the field and 16 percent from three-point in that victory. This is a team, that's more known for its offense and a defensive shut down like that is a great sign for the future. Damian Lillard continuing his ridiculous ways is another reason to get excited and it's truly looking like we might be in for a long series. I Lillard keeps playing like this and Nukic keeps recording double-doubles, it surely will be.

The Lakers (0-1) were playing some lackluster ball at the end of the regular season and it appears that it has carried over into the playoffs. Those ugly shooting numbers from the Portland section show just that and it appears that Anthony Davis and LeBron James are going to have to carry this team. Those two combined for 51 points, 28 rebounds, 17 assists and three steals in that game and the role players were horrible. In fact, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma, Alex Caruso and Danny Green combined to go 10-of-41 from the field. LeBron and AD are obviously two of the best players in the game but they'll need more from those guys to even up this series here.

The win by Portland in Game 1 evened up the season series 2-2.