The Intuit Dome turned into a sea of purple and gold Wednesday night, as Laker fans transformed the Clippers’ arena into a virtual home game.
The Clippers fell to their crosstown rivals, 103-87, marking their third consecutive loss and second to the Lakers in five days.
Clippers forward Rui Hachimura, the team leader in rebounds, missed the game after suffering a quad injury in Sunday’s loss at Oklahoma City. But the Lakers played without superstar Luka Dončić, who was held out due to back tightness.
A series of turnovers plagued the Clippers throughout the match. It was the third consecutive game they committed more than 20 turnovers.
“I think it was kind of deflating early on. We had four turnovers in the first four minutes,” Coach Tyronn Lue said. “Sometimes you’re gonna have bad breaks, but we had a lot of unforced turnovers that we can take care of and have control over.”
The Clippers’ offense struggled early. Guard Darius Garland was unable to find his typical rhythm in the first half, scoring just nine points. He finished the night with 14 points and five assists, while committing five turnovers.
The Clippers led 31-29 in the second quarter, until Lakers guard Austin Reaves nailed a three-pointer. From that point on, the Clippers never regained the lead and trailed by 16 points at halftime.
Keaton Wagler struggled early as well for the Clips, as he was held to just four points in the first half. Wagler committed an astonishing five fouls in the third quarter alone, with the Lakers turning up their defensive coverage on the talented rookie guard.
“Yeah, obviously they’re trying to be super physical with me, but talking to Coach Lue, if they’re doing that, just go by them,” Wagler said. “That’s what I tried to do tonight in getting by my defender. I think I did it pretty well in getting to the line multiple times. Just continuing to read the game that way; if they’re trying to be physical, keep going by them.”
Like Garland, Wagler never quite found his rhythm from the field, making only 4 of 15 shots on his way to 21 points.
With Dončić out, the Clippers turned their defensive focus onto Reaves. While he got off to a slow start offensively in the first quarter, it was guard Collin Sexton who picked up the slack and tormented the Clippers.
Sexton tallied 21 points to go along with four rebounds and two assists. In the third quarter, he went on a nine-point scoring surge, including back-to-back threes, further pushing away a chance for the Clippers to catch up.
“Sometimes it’s hard to get his attention because he gets locked in. He’s in the zone. I love it,” Lakers Coach JJ Reddick said of Sexton. “There’s some stuff for spacing that he needs to work on, but I also like when he’s just in ‘go mode.’ It puts pressure on the defense. Those two threes that he had in the third were huge for us.”
Added Lue: “We knew they were going to have four or five guys in the paint. Once we attacked, we didn’t do a good job in just kicking it out, making the right play. I thought we got ourselves in trouble once we got in too deep.”
With the loss, the Clippers drop to 1-3 on the season. They hit the road next to face the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Target Center on Friday night.