LOS ANGELES — The little things the Clippers did right early against the Lakers on Friday night turned into a lot of bad things down the stretch and it cost them a chance to regain an edge in their intra-city rivalry.
The Clippers lost to the Lakers for a second time this season, squandering chance after chance in a 106-102 defeat at Crypto.com Arena. It was the Lakers’ fifth victory against their former arena mates over the course of one-plus seasons.
The teams face off a final time this season on Sunday night at Crypto.com Arena.
“You got to understand that down the stretch of games, you got to take care of the basketball,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “Every possession counts, and we didn’t do a good job.”
It wasn’t close to being OK.
The Clippers (32-27) played well in the early going, showing the type of energy and determination that has been missing lately. They played near-perfect basketball en route to a quick 17-7 lead. Then it fell apart.
Fouls and turnovers began to creep in, which allowed the Lakers to get back into the game. By halftime, the Clippers had seven turnovers that the Lakers jumped on for 12 points and the momentum needed to take the lead.
It only got worse in the second half, especially in the final five minutes when the Clippers had several opportunities to regain the lead. They had five more turnovers in the fourth quarter while shooting 2 for 9 from 3-point range, including a miss by Kawhi Leonard with 21.5 seconds left and the Clippers down by four and a miss by Bogdan Bogdanovic with 10.2 seconds left still down by four.
Trailing 67-65 in the third quarter, Leonard was fouled on a layup but missed the free throw and a chance to take the lead with 5:45 left to play. Kris Dunn, who was enjoying one of his best games of the season, picked up his fifth foul a minute later while guarding Lakers star Luka Doncic.
Doncic went to the line, making both foul shots for a 69-67 lead.
The fourth quarter was more of the same – errant passes, more turnovers and erratic 3-point shooting. The Clippers finished the night shooting 44.8% overall and 24.3% (9 for 37) from 3-point range with 18 turnovers.
“We talked about it coming into the game, how we got to take care of the basketball,” Lue said. “But overall I thought defensively we did some good stuff. I thought (Ivica Zubac) did a good job of switching on to LeBron (James) and Luka, making it tough and then we just didn’t secure the rebounds a couple of times when we did switch.
“But overall, pretty satisfied about our intent, so we just got to be better Sunday.”
And when the Clippers’ self-inflicted miscues and missed shots weren’t enough, the Lakers’ superstar duo did the rest.
James had 28 points on 12-for-21 shooting to go with 13 rebounds and three assists.
Doncic finished with 31 points on 9-of-22 shooting and went 10 for 11 from the free-throw line. He had five assists on a night when the Lakers shot 48.8% from the field and 33.3% (11 for 33) from behind the arc.
“Just them being smart enough to hunt the matchup, their shot-making obviously and their ability to pass (makes them tough to guard),” said Leonard, who had 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting but missed four of his six free throws. “They played well tonight.”
Zubac took advantage of the undersized Lakers, scoring a season-high 27 points on 13-for-15 shooting to go with 16 rebounds, but Harden had a tough shooting night (5 for 22 overall, 1 for 10 from 3-point range) to get his 18 points and had six turnovers as the Clippers lost for the fourth time in five games and the seventh in their past 11.
Lue said some of their struggles will be alleviated when the team gets completely healthy but there are just 23 games left in the regular season as they try to remain in the top six in the Western Conference standings and avoid the play-in tournament (spots 7-10).
Norman Powell, the Clippers’ leading scorer at 24.2 points per game, missed his fifth consecutive game with left knee soreness but Lue said the team is optimistic he will be back as soon as Sunday.
But Powell’s return won’t fix everything.
“I mean, we just got to stay healthy,” said Leonard, who recently was dealing with a foot issue. “We need to be healthy and that’ll help us a lot, but we can’t attribute the losses to that. We were still able to win his game and we couldn’t pull it out.”