Los Angeles has struggled to maintain consistency in their victories this week.
The Orlando Magic came to sunny Los Angeles to put some heat on the Lakers and Clippers. In my eyes, Orlando seemed like the underdog in both games.
They clearly proved me wrong and put on a couple of magical performances. The Clippers fell to Orlando in a razor-thin game, 111-109. Orlando’s guard Desmond Bane was on fire, leading a comeback victory against an initially strong Clippers team. He dropped 36 points, the most in his past five games. Even though Orlando won, I would not say that Bane was the MVP of the night.
Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard erupted on 37 points, outdueling Bane’s 36. Leonard led Los Angeles with an early lead that they controlled for stretches, up until the final minutes of the last quarter. Leonard also locked down Orlando’s wings, holding forward Paolo Banchero to just 16 points, the lowest he has had in his past five games. On top of all this, Leonard racked up three steals, two blocks and three turnovers.
Between the Lakers and Magic, the guess of who is supposed to win was pretty obvious. So when Orlando edged Los Angeles 110-109, it was definitely upsetting.
While it was Orlando’s center Wendell Carter Jr. who scored the game-winning shot with 6.7 seconds left, Banchero and Bane, who defined an Orlando attack against Laker guard Luka Doncic, forward LeBron James and center Deandre Ayton. Banchero put up 36 points while Bane had 22 – a consistent shooter who has held 20 points or more in his last nine of 11 games.
Yeah, the Lakers trio balled out with the stat line, but they just were not hungry enough. Doncic passed up on a wide-open shot in the last possession against Orlando, and LeBron bricked his hail mary. Just unlucky to be honest.
From the court to the soccer field, Los Angeles has made its statement. LAFC decimated Inter Miami 3-0 in the season opener. LAFC’s forwards put on a spectacular show with David Martinez opening the game by scoring in the 37th minute before Denis Boungana added his signature strike at 73’ and finally Nathan Ordaz tapped in a stoppage-time dagger (90+4’) to seal the shutout.
It was clear that Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi was not happy about the game. In this case, yeah, Messi is salty, but you can not really blame him that much. Some of those calls were questionable. The refs ignored LAFC’s fouls on Messi’s dribble penetration, a dubious non-PK and inconsistent free kicks that favored LAFC. In fact, Messi was so mad that he attempted to follow the refs into the referee room after the game ended.
Los Angeles will continue to ramp up as springtime is right around the corner. Both the LA Dodgers and Anaheim Angels are excited to get moving with spring training. Dodgers’ two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani and the Angels center fielder Mike Trout have been making splashes already. The Dodgers look to host the San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs, with Ohtani expected for mound work against Chicago. This will be the perfect tune-up before the Tokyo Series. The Angels are also hard at work trying to rebuild hype before the season begins.
Los Angeles continues to dominate their sports for the most part, however, basketball has to really step it up for next week.