The Lakers had a tough loss against the Clippers in a game that went down to the end. The Clippers came together as a team and despite a bad turnover at the end, they put the Lakers away at Crypto.com arena. The battle of LA went to the Clippers this time and they have won 6 straight games against the Lakers.
The game ended 105-102. LeBron had a chance to tie it with a tough corner shot but fell short. The Lakers had their best opportunity to win the game when Reggie Jackson had an 8-second violation when he failed to advance the ball within 8 seconds. There were around 17 seconds left and the Lakers had the last possession. But a bad shot by Carmelo Anthony gave the possession to the Clippers and the Lakers had to foul.
Carmelo took a deep three with 7 seconds left but airballed it. The ball was rebounded by Robert Covington and the Lakers had to foul. Reggie Jackson was the one fouled and he made both free throws making it a 3 point game. There were only 2.2 seconds left and no timeouts. Once the ball was advanced it was tipped out by Covington. With 0.7 seconds LeBron had to make a tough 3 from the corner but it was short.
While Carmelo had a really good game and was a major reason the Lakers made a comeback in the 3rd quarter after they were down 10 points after the first half, he did take a bad shot that cost them the game. LeBron also failed to maintain his streak of 24 straight 25+ point games after only scoring 21 points in the game.
Dwight Howard was a huge presence in the game with 14 points and 16 rebounds. Westbrook and Talen Horton Tucker also scored in double digits with 18 and 16 respectively. But it wasn’t enough to beat the Clippers who had 7 players in double digits and were led by Terrence Mann’s 19 points and 10 rebounds. While the loss hurts the Lakers, they look like a better team than they have been all season and hopefully they can figure out how to come together and win a championship.