The Portland Trail Blazers remained unbeaten at 3-0 after surviving a foul-filled, hot shooting, flop fest of a game down in Los Angeles against the Lakers by a score of 136-129.

The Blazers trailed for most of the first half, but big shots from Toumani Camara and great two-way play from Robert Williams III kept them close.

In the fourth, Portland went up and the game went back-and-forth from there, but the Blazers made their shots down the stretch while the Lakers couldn’t say the same.

First half

Portland started out cold in LA as the Lakers took a quick 14-7 lead before a timeout from Micah Nori.

The Blazers were able to cut into the lead and get it down to 25-22, but LA kept an arms distance the rest of the frame to end it up 38-32 as Luka Doncic was pouring it on early with 16 points.

Free throws for both sides slowed the game down in the first half as well with a combined 40 attempts (19 for LA, 21 for Portland).

Things were relatively even in the second quarter as Portland won it by a point 36-35 to only trail 73-68 going into the break.

The Blazers hit seven 3-pointers in the first half to help stay in the game as they also missed six free throws.

Third quarter

In the third, Doncic went back to work hitting three more 3-pointers to push his point total on the night to 36 going into the fourth.

Toumani Camara kept shooting well though, knocking down two more threes and Clingan added his second triple of the night as well.

However, Deni Avdija and Donovan Clingan had to sit with foul trouble, both picking up their fourth in the third frame.

Robert Williams made a huge play closing the third where he blocked a Doncic 3-point attempt, got out in transition and finished it with a slam to get Portland within a possession.

In the closing seconds of the third, Jrue Holiday forced a turnover off of Doncic, the ball scrambled into the paint on the Lakers end where Holiday pulled it out, handed it off to Williams who slammed it home right before the buzzer, making it just a 103-102 Lakers lead heading to the final frame.

Fourth quarter

Clingan made a big play to start the fourth, blocking consecutive shot attempts by the Lakers that turned into a run-out to Damian Lillard who hit Avdija cutting to the basket. He missed the first and hit the second to tie the game at 103 with 11:09 to go.

Portland finally took a lead again when Lillard came off a screen and hit an off-balance 3-pointer to put the Blazers up 108-106. Then, after a stop, Avdija crashed the paint, found Camara and the Belgian hit his fourth triple of the night to make it 111-106 Portland, followed by a Lakers timeout with 8:29 to go.

Doncic came back into the game though and LA quickly cut the deficit down to 114-112, forcing a Portland timeout with 6:44 left.

From there, both sides went back and forth with the Lakers taking a brief lead on a Ziaire Williams 3-pointer, which was answered by Holiday with a three.

Portland got called for two flopping technicals in the fourth, one on Camara and the second on Morant which was…questionable at best. Fortunately, it only left the game tied at 121 with 3:49 to go.

Lillard hit a three, Doncic hit a three and then Avdija hit one to pump the score up to 128-124 Portland, then it was Ziaire Williams again to make it 128-127 Portland with under 2:30 to go.

Morant scored back-to-back buckets in the paint around a couple missed free throws from Walker Kessler to go up 132-127.

Doncic hit a jumper, but Lillard responded with a stepback 3-pointer to make it 135-129 and officially reintroduce Dame Time to the NBA, his fourth triple of the night.

Doncic came back and missed his jumper and all the Blazers had to do from there was knock down some free throws, which they did.

Portland shot 50 percent from deep and were led by Avdija and Morant with 23 points each, the former chipping in nine assists. Lillard had 21 and Holiday had 22.

Robert Williams had 14 points and 10 rebounds while Clingan had nine points and 10 rebounds. Camara had 12 points on his four made threes.