Grading every Lakers player’s performance from the team’s 114-106 win over the Blazers.
In each of the Lakers’ wins over the Blazers this season, they’ve followed similar formulas.
One star sat. The other star picked up the slack and a role player had a huge night to earn the win.
In the first meeting, LeBron James sat, Anthony Davis had 30 points and D’Angelo Russell added 28 points and 14 assists.
In Thursday’s game, AD sat with his sprained ankle from Christmas, LeBron tallied 38 points and Max Christie had a career night.
You might want a more comfortable result in these games, but that the Lakers can rest one of their stars and still win is a positive.
So, let’s dive into the win. As always, grades are based on expectations for each player. A “B” grade represents the average performance for that player.
23 minutes, 6 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2-6 FG, 0-4 3PT, 2-2 FT, -3
With the trade deadline closing in and the Lakers having just traded for someone who could take his spot in the starting lineup, Rui is picking a pretty bad time for back-to-back pedestrian games.
After a bad game against Cleveland, he had a bad game against Portland, too.
Now, that being said, THAT WAS A BLOCK AT THE END OF THE GAME!
.@Anpherknee was all of us reacting to that awful goaltend call on Rui pic.twitter.com/fg8PINcG0a
— Silver Screen and Roll (@LakersSBN) January 3, 2025
Grade: F
36 minutes, 38 points, 3 rebounds, 8 assists, 15-25 FG, 7-10 3PT, 1-2 FT, +4
LeBron looked as fresh as he has all season in this one. He caught fire in the second quarter and carried that through the rest of the game.
My worry/concern is that he exerted so much energy in this one because he knew he’d be resting against Atlanta on Friday. But that’ll be a problem to address later.
On Thursday, he was everything the Lakers needed him to be.
Grade: A+
18 minutes, 4 points, 6 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block, 2-4 FG, +5
After missing the majority of the last two months, Hayes returned to the court on Thursday in place of Davis. He admitted postgame he was still out of shape, which is to be expected, but he provided some nice minutes.
And six rebounds in 18 minutes from him feels like 20 rebounds from about anyone else.
Grade: B+
32 minutes, 28 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 9-16 FG, 5-9 3PT, 5-5 FT, +8
Have yourself a night, Max.
This version of Max is the one worthy of all the hype he received in the offseason. His awful start to the season is well, well behind him and he’s been a game-changer for the Lakers since entering the starting lineup.
Thursday felt like one of the first times this year he consistently knocked down those corner three looks and he feasted on the Blazers defense as a result.
Grade: A+
36 minutes, 15 points, 8 rebounds, 11 assists, 2 steals, 5-15 FG, 2-9 3PT, 3-3 FT, +10
It was a pretty rough night for Austin shooting the ball, though he found his jumper later in the game. But still, he was a creator once again.
I’m still wary of the long-term viability of Austin as a point guard, specifically in the playoffs. But he’s done everything that could be asked of him since the team traded D’Angelo Russell.
Grade: A-
19 minutes, 8 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 4-8 FG, +8
Not to be too harsh on Jaxson, especially considering he’s just coming back from a lengthy absence, but I came away from this game thinking Koloko should be in the rotation over Hayes moving forward.
Koloko offers most, if not all, of what Hayes does offensively plus he adds rebounding and defense. What he lacks in athleticism, he replaces in actually protecting the rim.
Grade: B+
24 minutes, 3 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1-6 FG, 1-4 3PT, +11
Am I concerned that DFS has come to LA and immediately started missing shots? A little bit!
The Crypto Curse looms large and he’s come to LA and shot 1-6 from three in his first two games. It’s an incredibly small sample size and he could just as easily go 4-4 on Friday and this means nothing.
I would say that, regardless of his shooting struggles, his plus-minus is a better indicator of his play on Thursday as it felt like the team was better with him on the floor.
Grade: C+
17 minutes, 6 points, 1 rebound, 2-6 FG, 0-3 3PT, 2-2 FT, -3
It was a night of some nice positives and some consistent negatives. On the one hand, he had some nice hustle plays and I thought it warranted his minutes on the night.
On the other hand, he missed all three of his threes and all of them were open looks. Two of them were corner shots in the fourth that were tough to see not fall.
Grade: C
16 minutes, 4 points, 3 rebounds, 2-5 FG, 0-3 3PT, +2
Let me just say now that it is physically painful to watch Shake’s jumper. How on Earth is he an accurate shooter with that thing????
I would imagine that, once Gabe Vincent is healthy, Shake’s minutes will reduce greatly. He hasn’t done a whole lot in these two games to warrant playing time over Vincent when he’s healthy, especially with how Gabe was playing before the injury.
Grade: C+
19 minutes, 2 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 1-3 FG, 0-1 3PT, -2
Outside of one steal that led to a fastbreak basket, I really don’t remember much of what Cam did on the night, which isn’t great for a guy who played nearly 20 minutes.
Grade: C
After really leaning into the small ball lineups in recent weeks, JJ went back to his bigs on Thursday. Part of that was probably due to the amount of centers the Blazers have, but I do think it’s something that he should do more often.
It’s not a bad thing to work on multiple looks, but right now, the Lakers look better with centers on the floor, especially with how well Koloko is playing.
He did lose his challenge early on but I’m not docking him for that because HOW DID THEY GET CLEAR BLOCKS WRONG TWICE WHEN THEY REVIEWED THEM EACH TIME.
Grade: B+
Thursday’s DNPs: Bronny James
Thursday’s inactives: Jalen Hood-Schifino, Armel Traore, Quincy Olivari, Christian Wood, Anthony Davis, Jarred Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.
