Via Melissa Rohlin
FOX Sports NBA Writer
The closeness between the status of the two teams was clear before the match started.
inside Slippers‘Thursday’s pregnancy press conference, coach Tyronn Lue says superstar Kawhi Leonard won’t start. It is magnified by selflessness, which is best for both him and the team when he returns from an ACL tear.
Meanwhile, just 15 minutes earlier, Lakers coach Darvin Ham was doing damage control on a player who had not yet featured in a pre-season game. Specifically, Russell Westbrook, who recently said that a hamstring strain he suffered “absolutely” could have been due to him coming on from the bench. (Ham said on Thursday that he and Westbrook had a “short discussion” about that statement, adding that the organization would never put a player in harm’s way.)
In a dressing room, there is a sense of cohesion. The other reeks of fragmentation.
[Russell Westbrook and the storm brewing within the Lakers]
Although the teams’ locker rooms are 70 feet apart, the franchises couldn’t be further apart right now, something that was highlighted multiple times during the Clippers’ 103-97 win over the Lakers on Thursday. .
Before the game, Lue talked about the team’s championship expectations, in contrast, The Lakers revealed that their bar was quite different.
“We’re going to the knockout round,” Patrick Beverley exclaimed ahead of time as he addressed the crowd at Crypto.Com Arena.
The game itself was sporadic for both teams, with the Clippers taking a 16-point lead to let the Lakers draw 89-89 with the remaining score at 7:41. But the Lakers then fell for the long haul, unable to score for more than four minutes.
“We didn’t play a great game,” admitted Lue.
But there have been too many positive signs for the Clippers.
Leonard, who played his first game on Thursday after being sidelined for 493 days, was tired, but he showed bright things about why he is one of the biggest superstars in the league. fight.
When he entered the game for the first time midway through the second half, he made two long jumps and grabbed a rebound in less than 30 seconds. He finished with 14 points and 7 rebounds in 21 minutes.
His goal for the night? “Becoming great in my minutes,” he said. Would he mind not being in the game until 6:25 in the first half? “It’s been a long time, but I waited 82 games last year, so I don’t think 15 minutes is that long.”
There is a willingness to sacrifice among the Clippers. They are patient. They are very deep. On a night where no one scored more than 15 points, the Clippers had five players score at least 14.
“We don’t have to force anything,” Leonard said. “We have players who can help us on both sides of the field.”
The Lakers are in a very different position. They are currently being as deflected as possible. Behind LeBron James (20 points, 10 rebounds) and Anthony Davis (25 points, eight rebounds), they have no reliable third pick. Westbrook was dropped from 0-11 on Thursday, although he put on a solid defensive performance with five steals.
Westbrook was clearly displeased, so much so that it even hurt the Clippers star Paul George to see him in this position.
“He’s one of the best players to ever play this game,” said George, who played with Westbrook in Oklahoma City from 2017-2019. “It’s hard when you get the pressure they’re putting on him here… It just doesn’t suit him with the squad they have.”
The Lakers’ other biggest issue was also on display on Thursday. They are 9 eats for 45 words beyond the arc. Things were so grim for them in that area that James couldn’t even sound optimistic, as he usually does at this time of year. On Tuesday, he acknowledged that the team wasn’t built to have shooters, a seemingly huge problem in the NBA.
Meanwhile, the Clippers have a lot of offensive firepower that they can afford to have Luke Kennardwho had the best 3-point ratio last season (44.9), came on from the bench.
Thursday is far from beautiful. Both teams passed the first game of the first season in Los Angeles.
But then, two things are clear.
Clippers could be the real deal. Leonard and John Wall (15 points) is still limited in minutes and is working again after significant injuries. But when they are fully integrated, this team will be very difficult to stop. The Clippers’ biggest problem on Thursday was their 22 away runs, but that could be carried over to the first vibrations of the game. In other words, it’s not a real problem.
In contrast, the Lakers lost. They have problems that they don’t know how to fix. They have holes that they can’t plug in. Westbrook is clearly unfit and no amount of pre-season putty can smooth that wrinkle. And without players who can hit three consecutively, the defense will have to face 37-year-old James and injured Davis.
While the Clippers were surrounded by a sense of optimism, the Lakers were engulfed in a sense of impending doom.
The Clippers entered Thursday’s game with a seven-game win over the Lakers. And with 17 witnessing purple and gold championship banners, the Clippers show once again that they are definitely the top team in the city.
Teams are neighbors.
But now they are in different world.
Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the league for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @melissarohlin.
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