The Los Angeles Lakers managed to avoid their fifth straight loss by defeating the Portland Trail Blazers at the Moda Center on Saturday. The team's bench squad made surprisingly splendid contributions.

Los Angeles Lakers 128-120 Portland Trail Blazers

Before Saturday's game, the Lakers were suffering from both internal and external troubles. Their loss to the Clippers in the Christmas showdown was the team's fourth consecutive defeat. More importantly, their record of battling strong teams was not pretty. Of their seven losses, four were against possibly direct playoff competitors: Clippers, Denver Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks; the other three were against heavyweights in the East: Bucks, Raptors and Pacers.

The purple and gold are also suffering from problems within: injuries. Neither of their two superstars, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, is 100 percent healthy. James is dealing with thoracic muscle strain and groin injury while Davis has ankle and knee problems. Despite that, the two still started at the Moda Center.

Fortunately for the Lakers, their bench unit stood out to save the day. 

The five substitutes of the Lakers together dropped 72 points and Alex Caruso, the only one who did not reach double digits, got nine points. Kyle Kuzma continued his impressive performance from Christmas by putting down 24 points and three 3-pointers. When he could work more decisively, Kuzma's offensive efficiency will grow.

In fact, the Lakers and the Trail Blazers both have clear-cut features with their games. The purple and gold have bigger size and better rim protection but lack spacing; Rip City have better perimeter firepower but their offense relies too much on Damilan Lillard and C.J. McCollum. Besides, Hassan Whiteside is never an all-round defender under the rim.

That means the game was 50-50 when both sides made use of their advantage but would cease to be so when one side had extra help or the other side lost its advantage.

That was how the Lakers won the game. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Rajon Rondo punished Portland's defense by burying four 3-pointers to add extra firepower to LA's offense. Furthermore, in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter, the team suddenly began to double team Lillard, forcing him to give the ball to teammates. As Portland could not find the second one to take charge like Lillard did, their offense was paralyzed and had to watch the purple and gold leave the Moda Center with a precious win.

"Rondo came in with so much, his pace was incredible. Kuz is keeping up his streak of scoring the ball with the punch we've been wanting all year. He's getting back to his groove. And AC (Anthony Caruso), and Dwight (Howard) was a monster in the paint. Everybody else just chipped in. It was a good all-around game," James said after the game, according to Los Angeles Times.

Utah Jazz 120-107 Los Angeles Clippers

The Utah Jazz took their seventh win in eight games after beating the Clippers at the Staples Center.

Though Mike Conley was sidelined because of injury, Donovan Mitchell and Joe Ingles managed to take over the orchestrating job, delivering nine and eight assists respectively for the Jazz. Mitchell also shot down a game-high 30 points. Under their command, the team made a total of 17 shots from the 3-point line.

Jordan Clarkson who just joined Utah in a trade this week impressed his new teammates with 19 points, four rebounds and two assists. He claimed 11 points in the second quarter, leading Utah to score 39 points to gain the initiative of the competition.

By contrast, the Clippers only had 15 points in the last quarter but that was not the only reason for their loss. As Montrezl Harrell sat out the game, the team relied on Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Lou Williams for their offense.

Nonetheless, all three were struggling with their shooting. Leonard, George and Williams were 6-24, 6-20 and 5-14 respectively. George, especially, has been cold for quite a while. In the four games including this one, the six-time All-Star forward's field goal rates were 30 percent, 27.8 percent, 35.3 percent and 36 percent respectively.

The bigger concern for the Clippers is lack of chemistry among the three. Though they together delivered 17 assists, few of them happened between any two of the three players – only two of Williams' nine assists were for Leonard, one for George; Leonard only had one assist for George and one for Williams; George had nothing for the two.

In other words, the Clippers have the tendency to become an isolation team, which could backfire when they meet tough defensive teams like the Jazz.

Other games on Saturday (home teams in bold):

Memphis Grizzlies 110-119 Denver Nuggets

Toronto Raptors 113-97 Boston Celtics

Indiana Pacers 98-120 New Orleans Pelicans

Philadelphia 76ers 116-117 Miami Heat

New York Knicks 107-100 Washington Wizards

Atlanta Hawks 81-116 Chicago Bulls

Cleveland Cavaliers 94-88 Minnesota Timberwolves

Orlando Magic 100-111 Milwaukee Bucks

Detroit Pistons 108-136 San Antonio Spurs

Dallas Mavericks 141-121 Golden State Warriors

Phoenix Suns 112-110 Sacramento Kings

Brooklyn nets 98-108 Houston Rockets