Five takeaways from the Lakers’ loss to Portland

Five things to take away from the Lakers’ 98-94 loss to the Trail Blazers on Monday night in Portland:

1) Wayne Ellington started in pace of Kobe Bryant, who was home in Los Angeles resting, and Ryan Kelly started at small forward in place of Wesley Johnson, who was out with a strained right hip flexor.

Ellington was solid, scoring 13 points on five-for-12 shooting, two-for-three on three-pointers. He also had five rebounds.

Kelly had just two points, missing five of his six shots and all three of his three-pointers. He did contribute seven rebounds and three assists.

2) Jordan Hill got his groove back after having two bad games in a row.

Hill was the best offensive weapon for the Lakers against Portland. He had 23 points and 14 rebounds.

In his last two games, Hill had three points against Memphis and four points against Indiana.

3) Nick Young was way off the mark against the Trail Blazers.

Young missed 10 of his 13 shots and three of his four three-pointers. He finished the game with 11 points.

4) The Lakers actually outrebounded the Trail Blazers, 49-45.

That was significant because Portland entered the game as the NBA’s top rebounding team, averaging 46.7 boards per game.

5) The Lakers stayed on the attack in the third quarter, building a 10-point lead, 69-59, by sharing the basketball, moving and cutting, and finding the open man.

Their best play was when Jordan Hill had the ball at the free-throw line and made a nice pass to Ronnie Price, who had made a backdoor cut.

When Ed Davis’ defender left him to stop Price, Price passed the ball to Davis for a dunk.

Twitter: @BA_Turner