Blazers-Lakers: Preview of Their First Showdown of the Season

The Blazers will play the Lakers for the first time in the 2009/2010 season. It's at the Rose Garden, where L.A. hasn't won in eight tries, spanning back to 2005.

Lakers fans like to say that this game means more to Portland than it does to Los Angeles. But I beg to differ. In a long, arduous season for NBA teams, you have to get up for certain games.

I'm pretty sure an eight-game losing streak in the Rose Garden, a rivalry that always gets heated, and prolonged supremacy in the West is plenty of motivation for the Lakers.

Without a big chunk of the team, the Blazers really have their work cut out. This Lakers team is no joke; even without Gas...

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