LA Lakers vs. Portland Trail Blazers: TV Schedule, Live Stream, Spread and More

The Portland Trail Blazers are playing host to the Los Angeles Lakers in a nationally televised game tonight.

These are two solid teams out West and a large audience will see who will take an early step towards control of the conference.

Keep reading to find out who will win and what else is at stake in this important matchup.

Where: Rose Garden, Portland, OR

When: Thursday, Jan. 5 at 10:30 p.m. EDT

Watch: TNT, NBA League Pass (Live Stream)

Listen: 710 AM ESPN – Los Angeles, KYKN 1430 AM - Portland

Betting Line: Trail Blazers -3.5

Key Injuries

Lakers

Josh McRoberts – DBT (Toe)

Trail Blazers

Wesley Matthews – PRB (Back)

What's At Stake?

Portland (4-1) is one of the best teams in the West this season, even without Greg Oden and the recently retired Brandon Roy.

They are looking to continue their solid rebound from their first loss of the season against the Clippers by maintaining a perfect home record tonight.

Los Angeles is looking to string together another winning streak after falling to Denver on the road New Year's Day, but bouncing back with a nice win against the Rockets on Tuesday.

Both teams are looking playoff-bound at this juncture, so this is a great early-season test of their mettle and  measures what they must improve on going forth.

What They're Saying

Mike Bresnahan of The Los Angeles Times notes the Lakers' traditional struggle in Portland.

"

Since acquiring Kobe Bryant in a draft-day trade in 1996, the Lakers are 6-23 in Portland in the regular season, falling to the Trail Blazers year after year, whether rain or hail or the occasional burst of sunshine as their bus pulls into the oversized garage.

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Jason Quick at The Oregonian found point guard Raymond Felton feels his Trail Blazers are disrespected, but doesn’t care.

"

"Not a lot of people are saying much about Portland," Felton said. "They ain't talkin' about Portland making the playoffs. I like just where we are. I like us staying under the radar. So we don't want nobody talking about us on the T.V. Nothing. Even though it's a little disrespectful, that's OK. It just fuels us. We are just going to continue to play hard." 

"

Lakers Player to Watch: Kobe Bryant

It was reported today that Kobe is undergoing pain treatment every night for his injured wrist.

He has to numb it before every game to perform normally, so keep an eye on how it looks tonight.

Blazers Player to Watch: LeMarcus Aldridge

Aldridge may be the least known superstar in the league and is averaging a very quiet 22.2 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists, one block and one steal.

This guy is reliable as they come and a model power forward.

Key Matchup: Three-point shooting.

The Blazers are holding their opponents to 26.3 percent shooting behind the arc, and that is largely why teams are only scoring 94 points a game against them on average.

See if they can continue that against a Lakers team only shooting 24.8 percent on the season from deep.

Prediction

Blazers 101 – Lakers 97