Clippers continue dominance over Lakers

LOS ANGELES (News4usonline) – Los Angeles may be a Lakers town, but the Clippers don’t give a twit. The Los Angeles Clippers have that chip on their shoulders because they’ve now beaten the Los Angeles Lakers 11 straight times. That is not something that you sweep under the rug.

The Clippers, quite simply, have the Lakers’ number. The Clippers’ 125-118 win against the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena was just the latest beatdown Tyronn Lue’s ballclub has handed the purple and gold.

With Paul George missing the game while nursing himself back to health. Lue got solid contributions from just about everyone he had on the floor against the Lakers.  

Team depth showed itself to be a valuable tool for the Clippers to use now and in the postseason. Led by Norman Powell’s 27 points, the Clippers had six players score in double-figures. The bench of the Clippers outscored their peers, 55-25.

“We definitely can be good,” Lue said after the game in postgame comments. “We gotta clean up some things and just defensively just too lax. We score, I think we scored four times, and they came back and scored, we didn’t get matched up. Gave up four threes, things like that can’t happen. Some misassignments versus switches, we didn’t switch the right way. We didn’t call out the switch, so we gave up a lot of points on our mistakes. And so, if we clean those up, like you said, we can be a real dangerous team going into the playoffs.”

MY OH MY KAWHI pic.twitter.com/uRK6LXSUhq

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) April 6, 2023

LeBron James or not, the Lakers just can’t shake or get over the top of the Clippers. James scored a team-high 33 points for the Lakers, with 30 coming after halftime. It wasn’t enough. The three points that James scored in the first half were reflective of the team playing back-to-back road games. The night before the Lakers prevailed against Utah in overtime. 

“It was tough,” said James. “One of the tougher games we had this year. Just coming off a road trip, and even though this is a road game, getting back late last night after an overtime game. It was a tough game for us obviously starting the first half. Playing Lakers basketball, we had some good spurts. It was one of those schedule conflicts. Definitely got the best of us tonight.”    

Both the Clippers and Lakers had a lot riding on their April 5 game.  The two Southland teams and vying Western Conference Pacific Division rivals played this game trying to establish a good spot heading into the NBA playoffs. 

Coming into the game, the Clippers had beaten the Lakers 10 straight times. As much as this is clearly a Lakers town due to the high volume of headliners, Hall of Famers and stars the team has had as well as the number of championships won (17), the Clippers have been a thorn for them. 

The two teams entered this matchup locked in a near dead heat with each as both sported identical 41-38 records. The Clippers walked into the contest as the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference. The Lakers came in right behind them as the No. 7 seed. The win put the Clippers at No. 5. 

If the season were to end today, the Clippers would be matched up against the No. 4 Phoenix Suns in the first round of the playoffs. The Lakers, holding at No. 7, would lock horns with the Sacramento Kings (No.3), a team no one wants to see in the first round. 

The Clippers came out right out of the game in the first quarter, dropping buckets left and right, racing to a 15-3 lead on their way to a 37-point scoring period. The Lakers made a nice run to get back into the game, even briefly taking the lead at one point. 

That would be about all of the highlights the Lakers had in the first half as Kawhi Leonard and his 17 points saw to it that the Clippers maintained their double-digit lead going into halftime. The Clippers went into intermission with a 71-52 lead. Kawhi Leonard, who scored 25 points, talked afterward about the early jump the Clippers got on the Lakers. 

“We came out with energy early,” Leonard said. “We were able to secure a win being up you know 15, 20 points early. That’s always big in the NBA. If you’re up early, it’s always a comeback in this day of age with the three-point shot. So, I seen that we kept our foot on the pedal and we were able to secure a win and keep our lead throughout the whole game.”