The last time before Friday the Portland Trail Blazers were truly put in their place when the Memphis Grizzlies beat them 134-89 on November 10th. After that brutal loss, the Blazers were able to record three straight wins for the only time this season. Two of those wins came against the highly rated Minnesota Timberwolves.

Will history repeat itself? Portland got through the first part and was blown out by a weak Utah Jazz team 141-99. Three wins in a row would mean beating the Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns. I’m not sure I could do it.

The Lakers appear to be staring mortality in the face at the moment, having lost their last three games and seven of their last nine games. The Lakers have had their own recent experience with defeat, losing 134-93 to the Miami Heat on Wednesday. On Friday they at least kept it close, but ultimately lost 134:132 in overtime against the Atlanta Hawks.

Portland Trail Blazers (8-15) at Los Angeles Lakers (12-11) – Sun. Dec. 8 – 6:30 p.m. Pacific

How to watch via antenna or cable: Check out your options on the Rip City Television Network

How to watch via streaming: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; League Pass everywhere else

Trail Blazers injuries: Donovan Clingan, Matisse Thybulle, Robert Williams III (out); Duop Reath (doubtful); Toumani Camara, Scoot Henderson (questionable)

Lakers injuries: Christian Wood, Jaxon Hayes, Jarred Vanderbilt, Austion Reaves, Jalen Hood-Schifino, Bronny James (out)

SB Nation partners: Canvas and scroll painting

Reader questions about Blazer’s Edge

RedUniInLA:

Is it stupid that I paid for NBA League Pass but because I live in LA I can’t watch the game because I’m in the local market of the team the Blazers are playing?

100%. It is also understandable. If your company had purchased the rights to broadcast Lakers games in LA, you wouldn’t want a portion of your potential audience watching the game in a different way that doesn’t bring you revenue.

I’m a huge Timbers fan and thought Major League Soccer (MLS) had it made. They have a non-exclusive deal with AppleTV to show all of their games on a separate paid service for $99 per year. When I say “all games” I mean all games, without interruptions. Sometimes games are on TV, but you can stream any game. Even better: season ticket holders like me get the package for free. In general I really like the service, but the most frustrating thing is that MLS schedules so many games on the same day and at the same time. Why MLS, why?

Anyway, I thought the MLS TV deal might usher in a new era of blackout-free TV deals, but so far it doesn’t seem to have caught on with other leagues.

TheZink1:

Will the shabby blazers or the sleepy blazers make an appearance?

I’ll go with Scrappy. The Blazers have typically responded fairly well to poor losses, for example following a 134-89 loss to Memphis with a 122-108 win over Minnesota. The chances are good that the Blazers will also overcome this defeat and show a better performance in LA.

Rileyblog1:

What are the key factors behind these failures? It seems like they are performing at their worst after a three day break, but I would like to hear your opinion.

Youth. These guys are young and have been voted by experts from around the world as one of the worst teams in the NBA this season. The fact that they occasionally look like one of the worst teams in the NBA shouldn’t surprise anyone. In fact, the fact that they have eight wins so far may be a bigger surprise than suffering a loss every now and then.

If you want a different kind of answer, that’s largely up to the shooting. The Blazers shot 29.8% from deep and 38.9% from the field against Utah. Including free throws, they failed 97 times. You could build a house out of all these bricks. We’ve had some good nights with the Blazers shooting the ball, but they’re not consistently good at it. Until that changes, whether through development, trade or the draft, these things will happen.

Thanks as always for the questions!

What you should pay attention to

Don’t let the whistles get you down. The Lakers have the fewest fouls against them and are fourth in the NBA when it comes to draw fouls. You can think of all sorts of reasons for this, some reasonable and some not, but the fact is that the Lakers will have a better whistle than the Blazers. Portland can use this as an excuse or as motivation. We’ll see what they decide to do.

What others say

LeBron complains about LA’s lack of depth, but OutKick’s Mike Gunzelman writes that LeBron needs to take some of the blame for this problem.

The ironic thing about James’ comments, however, is that the Lakers literally could have had another person on their bench to at least somewhat alleviate their depth problem. Instead, LeBron pressured the team to sign his son Bronny James with the 55th overall pick in this year’s NBA draft.

Alex Regla of Sliver Screen and Roll writes about a big part of the Lakers’ recent woes: Anthony Davis.

Maybe it started when Davis suffered an eye injury against the Toronto Raptors. Maybe it was the bruised heel that forced him to miss a game. Or it may have been the plantar fasciitis that Davis said he had been dealing with since the end of last season.

Whatever the reason, Davis has gone from being a leading MVP candidate to being a mere pedestrian in recent nights. As a result, the Lakers plummeted in the standings and suffered several losses, including an “embarrassing” 41-point loss to the Heat.

Is it time for the Lakers to panic? According to Law Murray of The Athletic (subscription required), it comes down to whether you knew what was going on before the season.

If you had high expectations for the Lakers this season, you should probably panic. But if you paid attention to the Lakers before JJ Redick was hired as coach, you realize that any panic is performative in nature. More or less they are.