After finally meeting their match on offense, the Los Angeles Lakers will look to rebound from a high-scoring affair when they travel across town to face the Los Angeles Clippers at Inglewood, Calif.
One game after he scored 52 points in a victory at Utah, Luka Doncic delivered 41 on Tuesday, although the Lakers fell 136-129 at home against the Portland Trail Blazers. Teammates Austin Reaves added 26 points and Sandro Mamukelashvili contributed 17.
After LeBron James bid farewell to the Lakers by signing with the Philadelphia 76ers in July, Los Angeles won its first three games this season with a revamped roster before losing for the first time on Tuesday.
“I think sometimes early in the season, these are good learning lessons that we can apply both as coaches and players,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “How can we teach and scheme better? It was an incredible shot-making game. Also factor that in.”
While the Lakers shot 56.3% from the floor, the Trail Blazers shot 59%, including 57.1% in the fourth quarter to seal the victory. Portland also was 18 of 36 (50%) from 3-point range for the game.
Doncic promised high-level efforts when he wrote in a letter to fans before the season began that the team was “going to give you everything we have, every single night. No excuses. No nights off.”
Doing his best to live up to his word, Doncic has averaged 36 points, 6.8 rebounds and 8.3 assists a game this season. Reaves has averaged 26.5 points.
While the offense has delivered, a new physical defense had its flaws against Portland.
“We didn’t do basic coverages like we were supposed to,” Reaves said. “We had a lot of blown assignments, and it was everybody. I made some bad defensive mistakes. You could go around the room.”
The Lakers already have defeated the Clippers once this season, 125-117 at home on Friday. The Lakers took charge by going on a 14-1 run late in the third quarter. Reaves scored 28 points and Doncic 23.
After the Clippers watched last week’s game against the Lakers slip away, they were competitive into the closing minutes Sunday on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Clippers trailed 97-96 with three minutes remaining before the Thunder pulled away with a quick 6-0 burst en route to a 108-101 victory. Darius Garland scored 16 points with 11 assists for the Clippers, while Kris Dunn and Brook Lopez each had 15 points in a balanced offensive attack.
So what did Clippers coach Tyronn Lue learn about his team in the tough loss?
“That we play hard. We can play with any team,” he said. “Now we have to figure out how to close games. Taking care of the basketball is one thing. But if we’re competing for 48 minutes — not 34 minutes, not 38 minutes — then we have a chance to be in any given game.”
Of primary concern was the Clippers’ 26 turnovers that led to 38 points for the Thunder. In the fourth quarter, the Clippers had seven turnovers that yielded 13 points.
Against the Lakers on Friday, the Clippers also had 26 turnovers that were turned into 33 points.
The Clippers average an NBA-high 23.3 turnovers per game, with no other team averaging more than 19.5 this season.
