Los Angeles Lakers vs. Portland Trail Blazers

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The floor is painted a colour nobody would willingly choose, which is how you know it is a tournament night. The in-season competition is the league openly trying to make November matter, and the strange thing is that it has largely worked: group games carry consequences an ordinary early-season Friday simply does not, and the players visibly care rather more than they are willing to admit in interviews afterwards. The result is a building with more edge in it than the date deserves. Portland is the opponent, the oldest continuous argument on this coast and one almost nobody outside the two cities has ever noticed. A Friday downtown means the plaza is busy from about six and the restaurants along Figueroa are at full tilt by the time you walk in. Come for the version of November basketball that actually has something riding on it, which is rarer than it sounds.