This is the Lakers’ last home game before they embark on a long 6-game road trip.

I know the Lakers are still smarting over their unbelievable loss against the Indiana Pacers. But the NBA life moves fast and games come at the players every day. The Lakers have to get over the Indy loss and concentrate on Wednesday night as they take on the Portland Trail Blazers at home.

The last time the Lakers saw them, Portland handed them a close loss to put Los Angeles at 0-3. The Blazers were a hot team to start but have cooled off considerably as they have lost 6 of 7 games.

Part of that is not having Damian Lillard, who currently has a calf strain and is looking to come back later this week. Portland is 4-6 without Dame. Gary Payton II has also yet to play this season as he had abdominal surgery. And second-year player Keon Johnson is also out with a hip injury.

Blazers showed that they were very good early but I wonder if we’re going to get this kind of team when they’re healthy later in the year. Still, they have a lot of capable players on this squad. Anfernee Simons has done a very good job replacing CJ McCollum as Dame’s backcourt mate. He’s averaging under 24 points and shooting .383 from three. Jerami Grant, who made the game-winner in their first encounter this season, has been a pleasant surprise for Portland. He’s putting up 22 points per game and shooting a hot .479 from three (which is good for 7th in the league).

Jusuf Nurkic continues to be the big body in the middle. Josh Hart has always been a great rebounder (he got 16 boards against the Lakers) and has increasingly gotten better at passing. Justise Winslow has started the last four games and he guards everyone on defense. And the Blazers have an awesome rookie in Shaedon Sharpe.

In L.A.’s first encounter against Portland this season, LeBron James had 31-8-8 but he missed the potential game-tying jumper at the buzzer. Anthony Davis was dominant defensively with 6 blocks to go along with his 22 points and 10 boards. Also, this was the last game Russell Westbrook started in before the Lakers were able to convince him about coming off the bench. Remember the infamous two-for-one midrange shot that Westbrook badly missed. Just like the game in Indiana, the Lakers seemed to have a safe cushion with a 102-95 lead with under two minutes left. And they ended up blowing the lead and the game.

The Lakers have found a groove offensively so I expect them to shoot better than 6 for 33 from three. Nurkic can get as physical as anyone down low but I still expect the Blazers to copy previous teams and send multiple players towards Anthony Davis (who has 7 straight games with over 24 points and 13 rebounds). Davis only had two shots in the fourth quarter against Indiana and Portland will do their damnedest to limit him. L.A. also has to do a better job on the boards; Blazers outrebounded them by 12. Also remember that they need to box out since they didn’t do that against the Pacers in the decisive last possession.

At the very least, the Lakers did force Blazers into 19 turnovers. And the Blazers are third in three-point percentage so they’ll have to do a better job defending the perimeter. Lakers should feast inside the paint again like they did in the first game (66-38 advantage in points in the paint by L.A.).

Davis and James are listed as probable but there’s a good chance the Lakers will have all players available with Patrick Beverley coming back from his three-game suspension. But Coach Darvin Ham has not committed to Beverley getting his starting job back. We’ll see who gets that gig tonight.

The Lakers need to win this game, for sure. Again, they’re going on a long road trip and that arduous trek East could really break them; the Lakers have only won in San Antonio on the road this season. But first, they need to take advantage of a Damian Lillard-less Blazers. Think of 8-12 first before even thinking about a .500 record.