The second game of Friday’s doubleheader on ESPN…is a somber one, to equally write about and watch. The Portland Trail Blazers prepare to face the Los Angeles Lakers with the chance to string together a possibly playoff-inducing three-game winning streak, but as the aura in the air suggests, a win or loss wouldn’t make that much of a difference, would it?
This is easily set to be one of the most emotional nights in the history of North American professional sports, as this is the official first time that the Los Angeles Lakers play a basketball game since the untimely passing of Laker legend Kobe Bean Bryant.
LeBron James, the 20-year long good friend of Bryant, leads his bunch of men that currently own the best record in the Western Conference onto the Staples Center floor in an attempt to not just get their 37th win of the season, but play for the chance to put some smiles on the faces of Lakers fans, followers of the late legend, those who were graced by all of the memories given to them during his 20-year career, and those who just want to see a celebration of life done in the best way possible: on the court.
Looking beyond the emotions of tonight, the Lakers have lost three of their last six, and while that may speak some optimism for these Blazers who are finally climbing out of the Western cellar, Los Angeles has easily dispatched the Blazers the last two times they’ve played them this year and should do so again tonight, now that Carmelo Anthony isn’t to take the floor tonight in his bereavement process of grieving his friend that, prior to his transition, promised to show up in the front row with his daughter Gianna, another victim of the unfortunate incident, with him to watch Carmelo return to the Purple and Gold version of the Staples Center to play the Lakers.
That very grieving process is being done by everyone in the stadium, who are all to wear gold Kobe shirts donning both numbers 24 and 8 (half of the arena will wear 24, the other 8). So much so that the unpredictability of this matchup is serving as the second-most salient topic of conversation. Damian Lillard is HOOPIN’, and that’s meant as seriously as possible. He’s doing all that he can to get the Blazers into the postseason picture, literally averaging 44.3 ppg. in the last three games. He is putting up some MVP numbers and is actively putting together the sixth-best four-game stretch of points scored in the history of the league, still with the No. 2 scoring backcourt in the league only behind Russell Westbrook and James Harden in Houston.
LA isn’t so bad, either. But for a team with 36 wins that only has three double-digit scorers in LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Kyle Kuzma (could be two at the end of the week, if Kuzma is shipped in a trade deal) and a team that locks up on the defensive end, now fifth in the league in total defensive rating, this Lakers team is scary to go against and almost impossible to beat at home with their team-wide 48.4 shooting percentage.
But again, this game – this atmosphere, really – is one so unpredictably sentimental that it is worth the watch on ESPN tonight at 10:30 p.m. The eyes of the entire sporting world will collectively be on it, anyway.
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