Lagging Lakers won't have Luka Doncic vs. trending Trail Blazers

The Los Angeles Lakers will be without the NBA's leading scorer on Saturday when they try to bust out of their funk with a visit to play the recently hot Portland Trail Blazers.

Doncic will sit out due to left groin soreness, bad news for a team that has lost eight of its past 13 games.

The contest in Portland also begins a stretch in which the Lakers play nine of 10 games on the road.

It wasn't a fun night in front of the home folks on Thursday when the Lakers were bombed 135-117 by the lowly Charlotte Hornets.

Charlotte shot 20 of 43 from 3-point range and star guard LaMelo Bell matched his career best of nine 3-pointers while contributing 30 points, 11 assists and six rebounds.

"I saw the same thing everybody saw -- they made some ridiculous shots," Lakers coach JJ Redick said of the Hornets' long-range show. "You're going to have certain breakdowns in your defense."

Charlotte reached the midway point of the season Thursday with win No. 15. Doncic said the record is highly deceiving.

"Charlotte has a lot of young, great players," Doncic said. "We saw them win some big games when they're all on a roll."

Doncic made six 3-pointers while scoring 39 points, and James added 29 points along with team highs of nine rebounds and six assists.

But the Lakers' bench was virtually absent with a total of nine points on 4-of-19 shooting. Now Los Angeles will have to make do without Doncic (33.6 points per game) as well as second-leading scorer Austin Reaves (26.6 ppg), who hasn't played since Christmas because of a left calf strain.

The Lakers also might be without Jaxson Hayes (hamstring) and Deandre Ayton (knee), both considered questionable.

The losses are starting to frustrate Doncic, who struggled to pinpoint what are the current issues with the club.

"I want to win every game," Doncic said. "It doesn't matter if we come off a loss or a win. I just want to win every game."

Meanwhile, Portland has won six of its past eight games as it tackles the Lakers for the final time of the regular season. The teams split the first two games.

The Trail Blazers notched a 117-101 victory over the visiting Atlanta Hawks on Thursday. Portland outscored the Hawks 29-14 in the fourth quarter.

Shaedon Sharpe led the way with 24 points, nine rebounds and five assists as the Trail Blazers won without the services of All-Star candidate Deni Avdija (lower-back strain) for the second straight game.

Avdija, who leads the Trail Blazers in scoring (26.1 points per game) and assists (6.9) and ranks second in rebounding (7.1), is doubtful to play against Los Angeles.

Portland got Jerami Grant (Achilles) back from a 14-game absence and he had 16 points in 23 minutes off the bench against Atlanta. Grant said his body held up fine and he displayed it during the decisive final stanza but he's listed as questionable for the Lakers game.

"We knew we had to push the pace," Grant said. "We had to pick up on defense. We got a bunch of stops in a row."

Jrue Holiday contributed 12 points, four assists and three steals in 21 minutes in his third game back from a calf injury. The ailment sidelined him for 27 games. He's also questionable for Saturday's game.

A surprise force was Rayan Rupert, who had 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting with three steals in 16 minutes off the bench.

It was the second straight game in which Rupert scored 13 points. His season high is 14.

"I think he was aggressive," Trail Blazers interim coach Tiago Splitter said of Rupert. "He was not shy on both ends, he shot the ball well, got a couple steals -- he always does that. On defense, he's almost perfect, he's always pursuing on screens and getting over pick-and-rolls, he's pretty good at that.

"Whenever he makes shots like (this) and he was aggressive offensively, it's outstanding."

The Lakers have won seven of the past nine meetings.

--Field Level Media