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Bruce Ely - Trailblazers.com

It was an all around crappy evening for Rip City on Friday. The Moda Center was infiltrated by purple and gold clad Lakers fans who cheered on their juggernaut of a team as it made easy work of our Blazers. Lebron James and Anthony Davis each scored over 30 points in a game that was never close after the first quarter. Coach Stotts got ejected for the first time in his long NBA career and to top everything off, Rodney Hood, the Blazers' excellent starting forward, tore his achilles tendon, a season ending injury. The final score was 136-113.

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Bruce Ely - Trailblazers.com

Tickets for this nationally televised game were hard to come by as the media hyped up the meeting between Lebron and Carmelo Anthony, two hall of fame bound players who have battled one another since high school and entered the NBA in the same year. They gave each other a warm hug at center court before tip-off. Carmelo started off hot, hitting key shots in the first quarter and for a brief moment it looked as if the Blazers were going to put up a good fight against the first place team in the west. But then Rodney Hood went down, and the wind was sucked out of the Blazers' sails. Here's video of the play were he got hurt.


The Lakers began to run away with the game in the second quarter. The Blazers had no good answer for either James or Anthony Davis. Both Lillard and McCollum put in valiant efforts and kept the game from turning into a complete blowout, but there really wasn't much that could be done. The score was 76-62, Lakers, at the half. Here, let's have a look at the some of the fans in the hallways during the break...


Rip City Trio:

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As mentioned, there were lots of Lakers fans in the house. One of these gals lives in the Portland, but used to live in LA. Her friend came up from there to visit her and see this game:

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This Mom is a Blazers fan, but is somehow raising Lakers fans:

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Blazermaniacs:

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The third quarter continued where the second left off, unfortunately. At times the Blazers would make a run and fans would urge them on, but always the Lakers had an answer. Coach Stotts, who is normally reserved and had never really even come close to getting ejected from a game, lost his cool after a blown call. You can watch the video below:


Afterwards, when asked about Stotts' outburst Damian Lillard said, "It was very necessary."

This loss to the Lakers was tough, but not unexpected. Losing small forward Rodney Hood early in what was shaping up to be his breakout season hurts much more. Blazers fans are left shaking their collective heads and wondering now what to make of the difficult hole in which our team now finds itself. The Blazers take on Oklahoma City at home on Sunday.

Game highlights: