Everybody on the Lakers squad was available tonight, and that hasn’t happened since the trade deadline. But with this battle against the Clippers being a back-to-back, the Lakers suffered their eleventh loss to the neighboring team, 125-118.
The Lakers, who were tied with the Clippers for sixth place in the Western Conference, have moved back to seventh place and as it lies now will play in the Play-In tournament.
“Every game has been important for us,” Anthony Davis said postgame. “Climbing up in the standings, trying to get to where we ultimately want to be.”
The past week, the Lakers were in Minnesota and had to spend an extra night after defeating the Timberwolves. Then they flew to Houston to defeat the Rockets. They then flew back to Salt Lake City, Utah where they slid past the Jazz in overtime and arrived in Los Angeles around 3:00am this morning.
The NBA schedule spares no one. And the Lakers had to wake up this morning with little sleep and after a 53-minute game to face the neighboring Clippers for the six spot.
The guys came out tired against a team that’s been off for five days—and it showed. Within minutes, the Clippers were up 15-3.
This was the Lakers’ first encounter with former teammate Russell Westbrook, whom they parted ways with at the trade deadline. Russ got going in the first with 10 points and three assists, (he finished the night with 14 points and four assists). His teammates followed suit. The Clippers were shooting 70% from three in the first. Los Angeles couldn’t match them, going 55.6% from beyond the arc.
The Lakers were within six at the end of the first. The deficit grew to 19 by halftime. Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard had 17 points by that time, Lakers’ LeBron James had three.
The Purple and Gold seemed to get their legs back in the third, and the Clippers three-point shooting cooled down to 42.9%.
LeBron found his footing and led his team back with 16 points in the third. The game was 93-82 going into the final quarter.
Norman Powell of the Clippers was the difference maker. His 27 points, perfect free-throw shooting coupled with Kawhi Leonard’s 25 points (+seven rebounds), and the Clippers 16-made free throws put this game to bed. It didn’t matter that LeBron scored 30 in the second half and Austin Reaves had 20 on the night, this game was in the Clippers’ hands from the jump.
Now, the Lakers have two games left, the Phoenix Suns Friday and Utah Jazz again on Sunday.
The Western Conference is a chaotic place right now, a lot can happen.
