LOS ANGELES — While acknowledging he still has a ways to go, Luka Doncic has also made it clear that he’s slowly starting to feel like himself again.
That was evident early and often in the Lakers’ 108-102 win over the Clippers on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena.
Doncic resembled his pre-calf injury self when he made a pair of stepback 3-pointers over Clippers center Ivica Zubac, a familiar sighting from the first 6 ½ seasons of Doncic’s NBA career with the Dallas Mavericks, setting the tone for the remainder of the game.
And the five-time All-Star, who turned 26 on Friday, helped make sure the 21-point lead the Lakers built up to the third quarter didn’t go to waste, knocking down a turnaround fadeaway midrange jumper over Kris Dunn to put the Lakers up 107-96 with just over three minutes left.
“I felt a little bit more comfortable,” Doncic said. “As long as we get the win, we have six in a row, so that’s what this is about.”
The Lakers went cold for the remainder of the game, with their only point in the final three minutes coming off Dorian Finney-Smith splitting a pair of free throws with 8.6 seconds left with the Clippers intentionally fouling, which put the Lakers up by six, the margin they won by.
“[Sunday] wasn’t perfect with some of the execution stuff,” Coach JJ Redick said. “But we more than made up for it with our effort at times.”
Doncic finished with 29 points, nine assists and six rebounds. He shot 9 for 17 from the field, with his five made 3s on 12 attempts being his most in a Lakers uniform. Doncic entered Sunday 14 for 58 from beyond the arc in his first seven games after returning from a strained left calf that sidelined him for 6 ½ weeks in the Feb. 10 home win over the Utah Jazz.
“Throughout my whole career, that’s the longest I’ve been out,” Doncic said. “So, I didn’t expect that much rust as you could see in the first couple games. But now it’s getting better.”
LeBron James, who didn’t speak postgame, had 17 points (6-of-17 shooting), nine assists and five rebounds, finishing one point shy of reaching 50,000 career points (regular season and playoffs combined).
Rookie wing Dalton Knecht scored 19 points and made five of his eight 3-point attempts – the most points and 3s he’s had in a game since the Lakers’ Jan. 28 blowout loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.
“Just staying confident,” Knecht said. “Getting back to my groove. Teammates were finding me. And I was just knocking down shots.”
The Lakers knocked down 18 of their 42 3-point attempts (42.9%): Doncic and Knecht combined for 10. Gabe Vincent, who started in place of Austin Reaves, who sat because of a strained right calf, made a trio of 3s while Dorian-Finney Smith (11 points and three rebounds) and Shake Milton both made a pair.
“Knecht, we understand he’s a good shooter, we got to make him put the ball on the floor and get to the basket,” Clippers coach Ty Lue said. “We can’t allow him to have catch and shoot 3’s, and we allowed that all night.”
Kawhi Leonard led the Clippers with a season-high 33 points on 13-of-23 shooting to go with a season-best 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the year.
James Harden added 13 points and eight assists but missed 10 of his 14 shots. Dunn finished with 15 points and four assists. Zubac had a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double before fouling out late.
“Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us,” Lue said. “We got down 21 points, but I like our fight to come back. [We] didn’t give in, being able to play through adversity, being able to play through missed shots, so I’m going to give our guys credit for that.
“But it’s a long season. It’s a hard season, and so every night’s going to be a tough game, and we understand that.”
The Clippers, who trailed 84-63 late in the third, cut their deficit to 93-88 midway through the fourth after a Zubac turnaround hook shot.
But the Lakers grabbed three offensive rebounds on their ensuing possession, a pair from Jarred Vanderbilt (eight points, nine rebounds) and one from Trey Jemison, before Doncic assisted James on a corner 3 to put the Lakers up by eight.
“[There] wasn’t a play that was more emblematic of our effort,” Redick said. “These opponents that we’re playing, they’re really good teams, they’re fighting like we’re fighting. These are playoff-like games just in terms of the physicality, the effort from both teams. That was a massive, massive play.”
The Lakers have held their opponents to 102 or fewer points in all seven of their games since the All-Star break. Their 101 points allowed per game in that stretch is the league’s best mark.
“Late in the year, you have to win some games in the mud,” Vincent (nine points, three rebounds) said. “We’ve had some games, some stretches here now to be able to test our grit, test our willingness to fight through a lot. And we’ve been doing that at a high level. So proud of the fight this group’s been doing. We just need to keep it up.”
Clippers’ leading scorer Norman Powell, who missed the previous five games because of left patellar tendinopathy, briefly returned on Sunday.
He scored four points, making one of his five shots, in nine minutes before subbing out, with the team saying that Powell wasn’t going to return because of soreness in his right hamstring.
The Clippers (32-28) have lost five of their last six games with the consecutive defeats to the Lakers, who won the regular-season series 3-1.
With Sunday’s win, the Lakers (38-21) moved into the No. 2 spot in the Western Conference standings, ahead of the Denver Nuggets (39-22) by percentage points, and a half game ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies (38-22).
“That’s great,” Doncic said. “Great position to be in, honestly.”