For just the 11th time in 55 games this season, the Lakers had Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves sharing the court together.
They are the core of the Lakers, the engines that make this team go, but health issues have prevented them from playing together for far too much. In their first game since the All-Star break, Doncic, Reaves and James carried the Lakers to a 125-122 win over the Clippers on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Doncic had 38 points, 11 assists and six rebounds after missing the previous four games because of a hamstring injury. Reaves had 29 points and six assists and made a big defensive play late in the game. And James had 13 points and 11 assists, his fifth straight game with 10 or more assists.
Leading 118-115 with 1:49 left, Reaves drew a charge on Bennedict Mathurin, the sixth foul on the Clippers’ star sixth man sending him to the bench with 26 points.
Doncic made two free throws with 21.2 seconds left to give the Lakers a five-point lead that barely stood.
With a 125-122 lead and the ball in the closing seconds, James threw a dangerous cross-court pass intended for Doncic that Nicolas Batum stole. But Batum missed a potential tying three-pointer, and James got the rebound to secure the win.
The Lakers (34-21) put two defenders on Kawhi Leonard from the start, keeping a crowd of defenders around the Clippers’ best offensive weapon, especially when playing zone defense.
Leonard was giving it to the Lakers but left late in the fourth quarter because of left ankle soreness, departing with 31 points on 11-for-19 shooting.
Lakers coach JJ Redick said before the game that Leonard is back to being a force on both ends of the court. That’s why so much of the Lakers’ game plan centered around trying to slow Leonard, who entered eighth in the NBA in scoring (27.8) and tied for first in steals (2.0).
“He’s more consistently taking the tougher assignments right now, and he’s back to being just an elite two-way player on both ends of the floor,” Redick said. “And you know, he’s playing as well as anybody in the NBA right now for the last two months, whatever the starting point would be, but it really is on both sides of the ball.”
Leonard is a primary reason why the Clippers (27-29) still are pushing toward .500 despite having traded two of their top three scorers in guard James Harden and center Ivica Zubac.
The Clippers started the season 6-21, looking nothing like a playoff team. But then they beat the Lakers on Dec. 20 and got rolling to a 21-7 stretch entering Friday night’s game, a two-month period in which they pulled to within one game of .500.
Coach Tyronn Lue said none of the Clippers gave up on the season, adding they always were “playing to win” no matter whether they had “young, old, toddlers” on the court.
“I just feel confident,” Lue said. “I just feel confident in our players, confident in our coaching staff, and I just feel confident in the environment and the culture that we’ve set. Why wouldn’t we want to play to win? That’s our mindset. That’s my mindset every single night. As tough as it may be or you start 6-21 whatever it may be, you’re playing to win. So, we make it to the playoffs and anything can happen. So our goal is to make it to the playoffs. I don’t know why somebody would scoff at that.”
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