Lakers News: 46-Point Night From LeBron James Can't Prevent Defeat To Clippers
Tonight, a superlative individual performance from Los Angeles Lakers All-Star power forward LeBron James was not enough to quell the "visiting" Los Angeles Clippers, who put on an offensive clinic en route to a fairly easy 133-115 win. The loss drops the Lake Show to a 22-26 record, and marks their 10th straight defeat at the hands of the Clippers. The Clippers are now 35-7 against the Lakers since 2012.
Although the Clippers got off to a nice start, leading 15-5 early in the bout's first quarter, the Lakers eventually caught up, closing out the frame within 10, 37-30. LA reserve power forward/center Wenyen Gabriel flashed his hops in a highlight-reel moment:
During the opening minutes of the game's second quarter, the Clippers held a steady 8-10 point lead, until they opened things up in a huge way down the stretch. After LA head coach Darvin Ham subbed in Thomas Bryant and Dennis Schroder at the 9:11 mark of the period, the Clips outscored the Lake Show 31-18 the rest of the way.
Heading into halftime, the Clippers had a 23-point lead over their Crypto.com Arena neighbors, 77-54.
The Lakers' defense woke up in the third quarter, as the team managed to hold the Clips to just 21 in the frame, after letting the Clippers put 37 and 40 in the previous two periods. The team's hustle on that end even extended to the scrambling moxie of one King James:
A hot start from a sharpshooting LeBron James got the Lakers within 10 at the midway point of the fourth quarter, awakening what had been a fairly zombified Crypto.com Arena crowd.
That's when things began to fall apart for LA. Two costly turnovers from Russell Westbrook and Dennis Schröder led to an 8-0 Clippers swing, and ultimately prompted Darvin Ham to wave the white flag, calling in LA's deep-bench reserves on the first night of a back-to-back with the score at 121-103 at the 5:07 mark.
Here's the Schröder gaffe:
James finished with 46 points on 16-of-29 shooting from the floor (a career-high 9-of-14 from deep!), eight rebounds, seven assists, two steals and a block in just 32:35. On the plus side, this marked the first time James had scored 40 points or more against the Clippers, meaning he has now done so against every single NBA franchise. Only two other Lakers, Russell Westbrook (17 points) and Thomas Bryant (15), even scored in double figures.
Conversely, four Clippers scored 19 points or more, led of course by Kawhi Leonard (25 points, nine rebounds, three assists, two steals, two blocks) and Paul George (27 points, nine rebounds, four assists, one blocks), two All-NBA caliber talents who showed what they could look like when fully engaged and actually playing in tandem. The Clippers outshot the Lakers significantly from both the floor (60.7% to 44.2%) and deep (50% to a still-good 40%), and significantly outpaced their "big brother" Lakers in bench production, 53-37.
The Lakers are right back at it tomorrow, as they host a rebuilding San Antonio Spurs team that would absolutely love to lose for a little lottery luck. There's a decent chance that the Lakers will look considerably more complete Wednesday from a roster perspective, as All-Star center Anthony Davis and new Laker Rui Hachimura could both be available.
Let's take all this with a grain of salt. The Lakers have gone 10-10 without Davis, a pretty incredible record considering some of their other major role player absences (Lonnie Walker IV and Austin Reaves in particular) during this last month-and-change. The team's wing defense tonight was terrible, yes, but the team was also without its two best wing defenders in the aforementioned Walker and Reaves. LA is also adding a major piece, Hachimura, tomorrow, which tonight meant the team was even that more short-handed without him or the guy he's replacing, Kendrick Nunn. Darvin Ham made a calculated choice to surrender a little earlier than usual because he knew that the Spurs game needs to be a win.
They'll live to fight another day. And they'll be stronger when they do it.
