LOS ANGELES — Playing without Anthony Davis hasn’t been a scenario the Lakers have had to face many times over the last couple of years.
But when Davis hasn’t been available, it’s usually led to poor results – a script the Lakers flipped for at least one game with their 114-106 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday night, their sixth win in the past eight games.
With Davis sidelined, the Lakers needed someone outside of LeBron James (38 points, eight assists) and Austin Reaves (15 points, 11 assists, eight rebounds) to step up offensively.
Max Christie was that player for the Lakers, with the third-year wing having a career night to help lift the team to its first victory of the new year.
Christie scored a career-high 28 points, shattering his previous best of 17 points, which he set in a Dec. 23 home loss to the Detroit Pistons.
He knocked down nine of his 16 shots from the field, going 5 for 9 from behind the arc. He has scored in double digits in four of his last five games, providing 3-and-D excellence in his expanded role.
But it was his none-perimeter scoring that helped the Lakers (19-14) keep the Blazers (11-22) at bay after Portland cut the Lakers’ 15-point fourth-quarter lead (92-77) to 101-97 with less than three minutes left.
The Lakers ran a Horns action that led to a Christie dunk to put the Lakers back ahead by six with 2:49 left.
Christie made a pair of free throws a minute later for a 107-100 lead.
After a Shaedon Sharpe dunk that reduced the Lakers’ lead to five, James hit his season-high seventh 3-pointer of the game for an eight-point lead with just under a minute left.
James later made a layup after an out-of-bounds play for a 112-106 lead to essentially put the game out of reach with 17 seconds left.
The Lakers entered Thursday 2-5 over the last two seasons without Davis, who sat out because of a sprained left ankle. It was just his second absence of the season.
Anfernee Simons led the Blazers with 23 points and five assists. Deni Avdija added a 19 point-10 rebound double-double with four assists, Sharpe had 19 points and five rebounds and Toumani Camara had 18 points.
Jaxson Hayes had four points while starting in Davis’ spot in his return from a 15-game injury absence.
Dorian Finney-Smith scored three points and Shake Milton had four in the veterans’ second game for the Lakers since arriving in a trade with Brooklyn on Sunday.
The Lakers return to Crypto.com Arena on Friday night to complete their home back-to-back set against the Atlanta Hawks.
More to come on this story.