Portland Trail Blazers vs. Los Angeles Lakers, Game 5: Injury report + how to watch

The Portland Trail Blazers are in a win-or-go-home Game 5 against the Los Angeles Lakers. Here’s a look at the injury report and watch details.

To extend their series against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Portland Trail Blazers are going to be tasked with accomplishing something they’ve never done in the Damian Lillard era: win a Playoff game without him.

Granted, they’ve never had the opportunity in doing so. For the first time in his illustrious career, the five-time All-Star will be an inactive scratch in a postseason game, after an MRI revealed that he had suffered a right knee strain. This season, they’ve gone 2-6 without him, and in total, they’ve won 16 of a possible 33 games without their franchise player.

In the past, this generally resulted in a common theme: sidekick guard CJ McCollum threatens to become the best player on any court he steps onto. In six games without him this year, the smooth-scoring guard averaged 33.3 points, 8.3 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game on 48.4 percent shooting and 40.6 percent from 3-point range.

Assuming the Blazers keep this game close — something they’ve had trouble doing over the past few games — expect a heavy dose of McCollum, as well as Carmelo Anthony and Jusuf Nurkić, as well as younger mainstays like Anfernee Simons or Gary Trent Jr., who should see heavier responsibilities tonight.

The Los Angeles Lakers come into the game led by one of the NBA’s great closeout performers in LeBron James. And with the minor, nagging injuries some of his teammates have, one can expect that the Lakers are anxious to get out of this series, and await the winner of the Thunder-Rockets. Here’s what James told the Field Level Media ahead of Game 5:

"“The team that you’re playing is desperate and they’re going to give you everything they got because they know they can be sent home,” James said. “So I have to come in with that same desperate mindset. That’s always been my psyche going into a close-out game. Hopefully, we can do just that on Wednesday.”"

With that in mind, here are a few details to take note of.

Game-for-Game Playoff Scores:
Game 1 — Portland Trail Blazers, 100; Los Angeles Lakers, 93 (POR leads 1-0)
Game 2 — Los Angeles Lakers, 111; Portland Trail Blazers, 88 (Series tied 1-1)
Game 3 — Los Angeles Lakers, 116; Portland Trail Blazers, 108 (LAL leads 2-1)
Game 4 — Los Angeles Lakers, 135; Portland Trail Blazers, 115 (LAL leads 3-1)

How to follow the action:
— Date: Wednesday, Aug. 26th
— Time: 6:00 pm PT
— How to watch: TNT, NBC Sports Northwest, or fuboTV
— How to listen: NBA League Pass, Rip City Radio 620 AM

Injury report, per CBS Sports:
— (POR) — Zach Collins, ankle (out for the season)
— (POR) — Damian Lillard, knee (expected to be out until at least Aug. 28)
— (POR) — Nassir Little, illness (expected to be out until at least Sep. 1)
— (LAL) — Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (knee, game time decision)
— (LAL) — Rajon Rondo, (back, game time decision)

Projected starting lineups, Portland Trail Blazers:
—  CJ McCollum (G), Gary Trent Jr. (G), Carmelo Anthony (F), Hassan Whiteside (F), Jusuf Nurkić (C)

Projected starting lineups, Los Angeles Lakers:
— LeBron James (G), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (G), Danny Green (F) Anthony Davis (F), JaVale McGee (C)