Lakers snap four-game skid in win over Clippers
There were ups and plenty of downs for the Lakers in the past month—with no lucky breaks in sight during their four-game skid—until an in-and-out game-tying three from Norman Powell gave the Lakers a sigh of relief at the final horn to give them the 106-103 win over the Clippers on Sunday.
The Lakers improved their record to 18–19 and are now 2-0 against their city rivals this season.
“Once everyone pitches in and does their job as long as they can, as best as they can, good things usually happen and that’s what you saw tonight—a well-balanced win,” head coach Darvin Ham said.
After a 16–7 early deficit, the Lakers went on a 7–0 run to get it within two and regain momentum. Early trips to the foul line kept the Clippers lead at the end of the first quarter at 24–19.
The Lakers then outscored the Clippers 87–79 for the next three quarters to the final horn.
LeBron came out of the first half with a sense of purpose, with a crowd-roaring one-handed dunk (plus the foul) on Paul George off the fast break. The dunk was emphatic, but no surprise from the 39-year-old, who sparked the Lakers' momentum into the early second half.
LeBron finished with a team-high 25 points on 57.8% (11-for-19) shooting from the field with eight rebounds and seven assits.
“It doesn’t fix everything, obviously. But it helps. But we gotta still learn from the wins more than we learn from losses,” LeBron said. “We have to learn from the mistakes we had tonight, which we had too many still.”
High turnovers and allowed offensive rebounds were some of the sloppy mistakes that were overlooked in the win, with 19 turnovers and 13 offensive rebounds from the Clippers.
Clippers center and former Laker Ivica Zubac accounted for 10 of those offensive rebounds, finishing the night with 19 rebounds and 22 points as he controlled the paint for most of the night.
Anthony Davis’ impact in the latter half was a huge boost for the Lakers, with a 14-point second half and a beautiful defensive island possession on George in the final minutes to force a bad shot.
“We came out with a sense of urgency. We played hard,” Davis said. “Competed on both sides of the basketball; just need to build off it.”
In 39 minutes of action, Davis finished with 22 points, 10 rebounds, three steals and a block while shooting 10-for-15 from the floor for 66.6%.
After a 13-point outing from the Lakers bench in Friday’s loss to Memphis, the second unit bounced back with a 31-point contribution as D’Angelo Russell and Christian Wood led the way.
In his return from a three-game absence, Russell sparked momentum with multiple threes in the fourth quarter after starting off 0-for-6 from the floor. Russell finished with a bench-high 13 points and six assists.
Wood was the Laker's biggest hype man and energy starter, with a 10-rebound performance with nine points and two blocks in 15 minutes. Wood had his biggest play of the night on a one-handed put-back dunk that sparked the Lakers and the Crypto crowd.
“It felt like a playoff atmosphere tonight. Guys just brought it on the defensive end,” Wood said on the difference. “It was the energy.
The Lakers’ next matchup remains at home against the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
