Five takeaways from the Lakers’ 113-110 loss to the Trail Blazers

The rivalry between the Trail Blazers and the Lakers has fizzled lately as the Lakers’ relevance in the West has faded, but you wouldn’t know that in Portland’s Moda Center.

Late in a tightly contested game, chants of “Beat L.A.” rang through the arena, silenced when the Lakers’ Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 110.

Damian Lillard’s answer sent the arena into a frenzy. The Lakers have now lost 13 in a row to the Trail Blazers and are now assured of going three full regular seasons without winning a game in Portland. Here are five takeaways from Los Angeles’ 113-110 loss Thursday night.

1. Although Lonzo Ball was active defensively, he was not engaged on offense. Ball only took two shots and missed them both. “I thought he was a little too passive tonight,” Lakers coach Luke Walton said. “The hardest thing for young players is the consistency when you just play so many games. He’s so unselfish. We want him to be more aggressive with attacking the defenses. I feel like tonight was one of those nights where he was more passive with it than looking to really attack them.” It’s occasionally a problem for Ball. Kyle Kuzma said earlier this week that Ball plays “cool” sometimes and Kuzma tells him he needs to play with an edge every time.
2. Lillard had some nice things to say about Ball. “It’s a lot of eyes on him,” Lillard said after the game. “Just like any other rookie in the league, it takes time. I wish him the best. I like what he can do. I like his playmaking ability. He rebounds the ball well, he plays hard, he’s humble …. people gotta understand, you have to give guys time to develop and get better.”
3. Brandon Ingram felt responsible for Lillard’s game-winning shot. He was guarding Lillard on the play and did a decent job of it. “I told Brandon, the game winner, that’s nothing,” Walton said. “That’s what he gets paid max money to do. He’s one of the best in the world at it. [Ingram played] good defense, he had a tough shot. But there’s other things that happened before that that we should be frustrated with ourselves over.”
4. Walton’s main takeaway from Thursday night’s game was that it did not have to come down to that final shot. He was upset with the sloppiness that took over after a very disciplined first three quarters. The Lakers only had five turnovers to seven steals in the first three quarters combined. In the fourth they turned the ball over six times.
5. At the end of the game, the Lakers coaches considered making a substitution for defense. They thought about putting Josh Hart into the game. But Walton wanted the group that was on the floor to get the experience of closing out a game. So he left in Ball, Kuzma, Ingram, Caldwell-Pope and Brook Lopez.

tania.ganguli@latimes.com

Follow Tania Ganguli on Twitter @taniaganguli