The 2022-2023 NBA season has begun. All the franchises have started the 82-game stretch that will determine their seeding for the NBA playoffs. LeBron James‘ Los Angeles Lakers and Damian Lillard’s Portland Trail Blazers are to face off. This will be a good matchup and a challenge for the Lakers considering that they have lost both the games they have played so far.
Injuries play a huge role in deciding the success of a team and its journey to potentially win an NBA title. With that being said, one must wonder which players will not be playing on both sides and what we should expect from this game.
The Los Angeles Lakers are shorthanded compared to the Portland Trail Blazers in this matchup
Both teams have already played two games so far in the regular season. The Trail Blazers have won both their games so far against the Sacramento Kings and Phoneix Suns. On the contrary, the Lakers lost both their games to the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers.
We are familiar with the greatness of LeBron James and that he wishes to remain in contention for an NBA title. However, since his team has not gotten off to a good start, they will be looking for their first win of the season against Dame’s Trail Blazers.
They include Thomas Bryant, Dennis Schroder, Troy Brown Jr, and Cole Swider. Schroder and Bryant have both injured their thumbs and are not expected to play in this game. Thus, it will fall upon the rest of the squad to try to secure this win. That will finally set the wheels rolling for the Lakers.
The Portland Trail Blazers certainly have fewer injuries in comparison. We assumed they were in the middle of a rebuild after the decision to trade CJ McCollum. However, they are still a legitimate team in the West as long as they have Lillard on the team.