LOS ANGELES — Any other night, any other opponent and the Clippers might have walked away with a victory.
James Harden had another prolific showing with 29 points and Kawhi Leonard and Kris Dunn each scored 19 points. Throw in 18 points from John Collins and another 10 points and 10 rebounds from Ivica Zubac and it should have been enough.
But not against the Lakers and certainly not against a red-hot Luka Doncic, who burned the Clippers for 43 points on the strength of 7-of-12 shooting from 3-point range on Tuesday night. Then, toss in 31 points from Austin Reaves and 25 from LeBron James and the Clippers didn’t have a chance, losing 135-118 at Crypto.com Arena.
Tuesday’s game was not unlike so many others this season, though.
The Clippers’ defense continues to be their biggest problem spot. The Lakers (13-4) were able to exploit the Clippers (5-13) inside, outscoring them in the paint (62-48) and in transition (22-8).
“Yeah, man, I think we got to start making it a little bit harder on the better offensive players on the other teams,” said Leonard, who still is getting his legs after missing 11 consecutive games because of a sprained ankle and foot.
“Tonight, we had one with 40 (43) and in one of the games, (Denver Nuggets center Nikola) Jokic at 50 (55). So, I think we got to try to make them pass the ball like they were doing to us. You see them shrink the floor, they’re not moving. So, I feel like we got to try to incorporate some of that into our confidence.”
Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said he was encouraged by his team’s play in the first three quarters, in which they stayed in step with the Lakers. They trailed by just three points heading into the fourth quarter despite Doncic’s shooting.
“I thought it was really solid basketball, and then the things that had been hurting us started hurting us,” Lue said, pointing to their 14 turnovers and their lack of strong rebounding.
The Lakers controlled the boards 38-29.
“They hurt us going to the glass and us not being able to rebound the basketball,” Lue said. “They got a lot of easy putbacks that really hurt us, especially when we had the lead up one and then just kind of snowballed from there.”
The Lakers opened an 11-point lead, the largest of the night to that point, in the fourth, as the Clippers began showing signs of fatigue combined with frustration. Emotions finally boiled over with 3:33 left in the game and the Lakers holding a 10-point lead.
With the game slowly slipping away, Dunn and Doncic battled hard for a rebound under the Clippers’ basket. A clearly upset Dunn then pushed Doncic to the floor and shoved the ball into the Lakers star’s chest.
Lakers center Jackson Hayes retaliated by pushing Dunn from behind, and the guard responded by taking a swipe at Hayes. Dunn was hit with two technical fouls and was ejected, and Hayes received one technical.
“We got to turn it around. That’s the only thing we got to do,” Leonard said. “We still like to play the game and now we just got to put some urgency in and try to win.”