Los Angeles– The Los Angeles Clippers suffered a narrow 103-106 defeat in a closely contested nail-biter against their inner-city rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers handing them their first loss of the new year.
Head Coach Tyronn Lue pulled their star forward Kawhi Leonard with 2:47 left on the clock and the Clippers only trailing 98-95 leaving many skeptical about the nature of the benching.
“So that’s on me as a decision that I made to get him in early to come back,” Lue said. “We were down eight and he did a good job, being on the floor, bringing us back and it was my decision. Like I said, he was close to his minutes and we got a back-to-back tomorrow and so just got to be smart about it, especially with him coming back from injury.”
The Clippers open the game sluggish, opposite of the efficient offensive juggernaut that we had been accustomed to seeing over this 14 wins in 16 16-game span. Shooting just 8 of 22 from the field for a field goal percentage of 36% but they did manage to shoot 4 of 9 from the three-point line making 4 of 9 for 44%.
The Lakers’ who were just 3-10 in their last 13 games, offensive struggles continued in the first quarter shooting 36% making 8 of 22 attempts from the field.
In the second period, the Clippers returned to form, thanks to Ivica Zubac, who scored 10 of his 22 points in the quarter. The Clips shot 52% from the field making 10 of 19 shots and shooting 2 of 5 from deep for 40 %.
The Lakers offense found their rhythm in the second quarter shooting 66% from the floor making 12 of 18 shots and 2 of 4 attempts from behind the arc for 50%.
Ivica Zubac led all scorers in the half with 14 points and 7 rebounds. Zubac would go on to finish the game with 19 rebounds to go with his aforementioned 22 points.
At the end of the first half, the Clippers went into halftime shooting 43% and the Lakers shot 50% with the score being 53-49 in favor of the Clippers.
In the second half, the Clippers offensive deficiency was the highlight. The Clippers shot 36% from the field, struggling only to make 18 of 50 attempts and shooting 8 of 23 from three for 34%.
The Clippers also committed 9 of their 16 turnovers in the second half.
“We just didn’t play a good offensive game,” Lue said. “There was a bad flow to the game offensively. I thought our defense was pretty good, but offensively we couldn’t get in a flow or a rhythm.”
The Clippers still had a chance late to win the game. In a 98-98 tie with just 1:57 remaining, the Clippers had possession of the ball but struggled to convert efficiently, managing to score on only 2 of their last 5 possessions.
The Lakers scored on each of their last four possessions.
The Lakers shot 52% from the field in the second half, making 22 of 42 attempts and shooting 40% from deep making 6 of 15.
In a dramatic moment, Norman Powell’s last shot at the buzzer rolled out of the rim, denying the Clippers a potential game-tying basket.
Lebron James led all scorers with 25 points, and Anthony Davis added 22 points for the Lakers.
Paul George finished the game with 22 points, Kawhi Leonard and James Harden both finished with 15 points.
The Clippers prepare for a quick turnaround and must relocate their offensive rhythm that had them as one of the hottest teams in the association as they host Devin Booker and the Phoneix Suns on the second day of a back-to-back.
