Portland Trail Blazers 136, Los Angeles Lakers 129

The Lakers got 41 points from Luka Doncic and still lost at home. The Portland Trail Blazers won 136-129 at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday, October 27, by taking the second half 68-56. They did it on the free-throw line, on the glass and in the paint, and they finished it with a 34-26 fourth quarter.

Portland moved to 3-0. The Lakers fell to 3-1. The full line history is on the game page.

How it was won

The Lakers had the better start. They won the first quarter 38-32 and held a 73-68 lead at the half, and at one point led by 11.

The third quarter flipped it. Portland outscored the Lakers 34-30, and the game went to the fourth at 103-102 to the Lakers. The fourth was where the Lakers ran out of answers: 26 points, their lowest quarter of the night, against Portland's 34. Portland's largest lead was only 8, but it came when it mattered.

The box score explains the margin. Portland shot 46-78 (59 percent) to the Lakers' 45-80 (56 percent), so the field-goal gap was small. The difference was elsewhere:

• Free throws: Portland went 26-41, the Lakers 22-30. Eleven more attempts and four more points.
• Rebounds: Portland 38, Lakers 31.
• Points in the paint: Portland 56, Lakers 48.
• Threes: Portland made 18 of 36. The Lakers made 17 but needed 43 attempts to get there.

Assists (30 to 28) and turnovers (14 to 15) were close to even.

Portland had three players at 22 or more. Deni Avdija led with 23 points and 9 assists, going 4-7 from three. Ja Morant added 23 points and 4 assists. Jrue Holiday scored 22 with 4 rebounds and 3 assists.

For the Lakers, Doncic finished with 41 points, 5 rebounds and 9 assists, shooting 6-15 from three. Austin Reaves had 26 points, 7 assists and went 4-8 from deep. Sandro Mamukelashvili gave them 17 off 3-4 three-point shooting. That is 84 points from three players, but the rest of the roster could not keep pace with Portland's balance, and the Lakers' volume from three did not make up for what they gave up at the line and inside.

Against the number

The Lakers closed as 1.5-point favorites, and losing outright meant Portland covered. On the moneyline, Portland closed at -102 and the Lakers at -118, so the market had this close to a coin flip with a slight lean to the home side. The lean was wrong.

The total closed at 234.5. The teams combined for 265, and the over cleared by 30.5 points. Both offenses shot better than 55 percent, and 71 combined free-throw attempts pushed the scoring well past anything the market priced.

What's next

The loss turned out to be a bump rather than a trend. The Lakers have gone 4-1 since: wins at the LA Clippers (103-87), against Toronto (131-125), against Miami (138-117) and at Sacramento (116-103), with the only loss coming at Golden State (95-112). They now sit at 7-2.

Their next game is the rematch: Portland at the Lakers on Friday, November 6, 2026, on Prime Video, Spectrum Sports Net and Spectrum Sports Net +. That is also the next Portland date in our listings. The questions for the Lakers are the same ones this game raised: whether they can keep Portland off the free-throw line and match them on the boards, and whether anyone beyond Doncic and Reaves can carry a stretch of the fourth quarter.