London Lions given lesson by Portland in historic game for British basketball — SkimNews
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- London Lions became the first British club to face an NBA team, falling 119-66 to the Portland Trail Blazers in a preseason exhibition Monday at the Moda Center in Oregon.
- Portland dominated from start to finish, leading for 99% of the game and stretching the margin to 57 points; the Trail Blazers shot 56% from the field and went 16-of-34 from three while all five starters sat out the second half.
- London shot just 30% overall, went 7-of-33 from beyond the arc, and committed 24 turnovers that Portland converted into 39 points.
- Maxwell Lewis, the only Lions player with prior NBA experience, led the team with 13 points, five rebounds and four steals; Great Britain international Tarik Phillip missed all eight of his field-goal attempts, scoring his three points exclusively from the free-throw line.
- Coach Tautvydas Sabonis brought the team to Portland — where his father Arvydas Sabonis played seven seasons across the 1990s and 2000s — admitting the timing of the trip was "far from ideal" given the club's domestic and EuroCup campaigns.
- London flew nearly 10,000 miles round-trip, arrived Saturday afternoon and stayed on British time to minimize jet lag, and must host Skyliners Frankfurt in the EuroCup on Thursday.
- The exhibition came as the reigning Super League Basketball champions — 5-0 this season and 2024 EuroCup semi-finalists — have bid to join the EuroLeague, which plans to expand to 24 clubs by 2027-28, and became the first British club to wear Jordan Brand kit.
Why it matters: The 53-point margin quantified the talent gap between British club basketball and the NBA, but the exhibition itself puts the Lions on the map as the first British club ever to face NBA opposition — useful leverage for their EuroLeague expansion bid and for renewed talk of London as a potential NBA Europe franchise city.
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