The shorthanded Los Angeles Lakers were unable to build off their impressive win against the Denver Nuggets and were thoroughly beat down by the L.A. Clippers on Thursday night, losing 118-94.
The Lakers defense was able to cause a few turnovers to start, but the Clippers outside shooting allowed them to take an early 10-4 lead. Kyle Kuzma was able to get his jumper to fall and score five quick points, but defensively they struggled to get stops.
Alex Caruso was able to knock down a 3-pointer in transition, but the Clippers’ outside shooting allowed them to stay ahead by double digits. Kuzma was able to hit two more jumpers toward the end of the quarter, but the Lakers found themselves trailing 29-20.
The Lakers were able to briefly get the deficit down to four, but once again the Clippers could not miss from downtown and immediately went back up by 42-29. DeMarcus Cousins was a problem off the bench for the Purple and Gold as he scored both inside and out, while another Paul George 3-pointer pushed the deficit to 20.
Even though they played hard on the defensive end, blown rotations led to several open looks that the Clippers capitalized on. Kuzma took the responsibility of shouldering the offensive load, but the Lakers went into the half down 65-42.
Davis did not appear in the second quarter as he was getting checked back in the locker room for what appeared right ankle sprain. It turns out he was actually dealing with back spasms though and was ruled out for the remainder of the game.
Wesley Matthews started the second half in place of Davis and drained a three while Kuzma added one of his own to force a Clippers timeout. However, they then endured a scoring drought and went back down 20 points.
Andre Drummond tried to get himself going by forcing his way to the rim, albeit coming up with mixed results. The Lakers had nothing going for them on either end and limped into the fourth trailing 92-71.
Montrezl Harrell tried to inject some life back into the Lakers with his rebounding effort, but the team struggled immensely to find any rhythm offensively. Head coach Frank Vogel seemingly waved the white flag by not re-inserting the starters and the Lakers would take home another disappointing loss, albeit an expected one considering they were missing so many key pieces.
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