There’s only one, score more points than them. (but for fun... what are your keys for the team to unlock the upset?)
Make lebron score himself 40ppg... you want him trying to get past guys and scoring. He doesn't have a quick first step like 10 years ago. He won't be able to do that for 40mpg. He can still setup teammates for assists all day which you want to prevent. Leave their bad 3pt shooters open but guard guys that get hot. Work for great looks on offense they can't guard our backcourt. Win the hustle and hunger plays.
Hit open three pointers. We will be tough to beat if our guys can hit the wide-open shots that Dame gets them. Have no injuries. We have no depth, and having a key guy unavailable would really, uh, hurt. Getting CJ feeling better will be great, too. Control the defensive glass. Opponents have got too many extra possessions off of offensive rebounds the last couple of games. We can't afford that against the Lakers. Don't blow big leads. We have had it happen in the playoffs too often, and we saw it today: the Blazers giving up big leads. We can't do that.
Is covid striking some of the key players out of the question? In all seriousness, if these guys have any sort of defensive ability now is the time to use it. Our offense will be good, but things will tighten up and if we have games here or there where we can't hit anything, it'll be tough if we aren't playing any D either.
Play more of Nurk with Whiteside together - it’s a different look; make LA work hard for every bucket. No second-chance points: OUT REBOUND them! Dame needs to keep shooting. BUT how about going off in the 3rd quarter rather than wait for 4th quarter heroics!? Trent needs to get hot again! He cooled off. Time to play crazy again. I’ll take a 20 and 20 game from Nurkic and we win every time. finally...one more bench player has to emerge: Gabriel could be the guy.
Blazers have to offer substantial resistance to Lebron and AD. Try and deny position and movement. They have to prevent both from going off in the same game and combining for 65-70 points and 20 rebounds. Try and limit Lebron's triple doubles but being it's the Blazers, I worry about some Laker role player(s) going berserk. Kuzma, or KCP or Waiters or Caruso posting a couple of 25 point games on scalding hot shooting. In other words, Blazers have to play their best defense of the season without losing their offensive mojo
Don’t do stupid stuff. NBA players routinely make bad decisions throughout the course of a game that cost probably 5+ points per game. You never get those points back. 1. Fouling a 3-point shooter 2. Fouling a 2-point jump shooter 3. Risky passes that have no reward 4. Careless rushed transition turnovers. First secure the damn ball! 5. Overly aggressive perimeter defense then getting beat 6. Poor shot selection 7. Taking yourself out of the play on defense leaping at a shooter (and risking a foul) instead of just getting a hand up and staying in position to box out or rebound. Thankfully we rarely do #1 and Dame goads our opponents into #1 a lot. But we do foul 2-point jump shots way too much. Dame did #3 at least 3 times today. One example was Dame passed the length of the floor to CJ and then CJ found himself facing 3 or 4 set defenders. CJ proceeded to commit #5 and missed a contested two point shot with zero chance of ORB. What pray tell was the point of the long risky pass? We do #5 all the time. The rest we do here and there like almost every team. For the most part these are all avoidable. Be smart and spot yourself a 5 or so point lead!
Simple...outscore them...outrebound them..make them shoot from deep..close out the lanes and play with pace
