Lakers, Clippers show they’re worlds apart in first meeting of season

By Melissa RohlinFOX Sports NBA Writer

The juxtaposition between the two teams’ state of affairs was glaring before the game even began. 

In the Clippers‘ pregame press conference Thursday, coach Tyronn Lue said that superstar Kawhi Leonard wouldn’t start. It was chalked up to selflessness, what’s best for both him and the team as he returns from an ACL tear.

Meanwhile, just 15 minutes earlier, Lakers coach Darvin Ham was doing damage control on a player who hadn’t started in a preseason game. Namely, Russell Westbrook, who recently said a hamstring strain he suffered  “absolutely” could’ve been caused by him coming off the bench. (Ham said Thursday that he and Westbrook had a “brief discussion” about that claim, adding that the organization would never put a player in harm.)

In one locker room, there was a sense of cohesion. The other reeked of disjointedness.

[Russell Westbrook and the storm brewing within the Lakers]

Even though the teams’ locker rooms are 70 feet apart, the franchises couldn’t be more distanced from one another right now, something that was highlighted multiple times during the Clippers’ 103-97 win over the Lakers on Thursday. 

Before the game, Lue talked about the team’s championship expectations, The Lakers, on the other hand, revealed that their bar is quite different. 

“We’re going to the playoffs,” Patrick Beverley exclaimed before tipoff as he addressed the crowd at Crypto.Com Arena. 

The game itself was disjointed for both teams, with the Clippers blowing a 16-point lead to let the Lakers tie the score at 89-89 with 7:41 left. But the Lakers then fell apart down the stretch, going scoreless for more than 4 minutes.

“We didn’t play a great game,” Lue acknowledged. 

But there were so many positive signs for the Clippers.

Leonard, who played his first game that counted Thursday after being sidelined for 493 days, was rusty, but he showed glimmers of why he’s one of the biggest superstars in the league. 

When he entered the game for the first time midway through the second quarter, he made two fadeaway jumpers and grabbed a rebound in less than 30 seconds. He finished with 14 points and 7 rebounds in 21 minutes.

His goal for the night? “Being great in my minutes,” he said. Did he mind that he didn’t enter the game until there was 6:25 left in the first half? “It was long, but I waited 82 games last year, so I didn’t think 15 minutes would be that long.”

There’s a willingness to sacrifice among the Clippers. They’re patient. They’re deep. On a night when no one scored more than 15 points, the Clippers had five players score at least 14 points. 

“We don’t have to force anything,” Leonard said. “We’ve got players that can help us on both sides of the floor.”

The Lakers are in a very different position. They’re as lopsided as can be right now. Behind LeBron James (20 points, 10 rebounds) and Anthony Davis (25 points, eight rebounds), they don’t have a reliable third option. Westbrook was 0-for-11 from the field on Thursday, though he had a solid defensive performance with five steals. 

Westbrook is clearly unhappy, so much so that it even pains Clippers star Paul George to see him in this position. 

“He’s one of the best players to ever play this game,” said George, who played alongside Westbrook in Oklahoma City from 2017-2019. “It’s hard when you’ve got the pressure they’re putting on him here…It’s not geared for him with the roster they have.”

The Lakers’ other biggest problem was also on display Thursday. They were 9-for-45 from beyond the arc. Things are so grim for them in that area that James hasn’t even been able to feign optimism, as he usually does this time of year. On Tuesday, he acknowledged that the team wasn’t constructed to have shooters, a seemingly major problem in the NBA. 

Meanwhile, the Clippers have so much offensive firepower that they can afford to have Luke Kennard, who had the best 3-point percentage in the league last season (44.9), come off the bench. 

Thursday was far from pretty. Both teams sputtered their way through their first regular season game in Los Angeles. 

But afterwards, there were two clear takeaways. 

The Clippers could be the real deal. Leonard and John Wall (15 points) are still under minutes restrictions and are working their way back from significant injuries. But when they’re fully integrated, this team is going to be very hard to stop. The Clippers’ biggest issue Thursday was their 22 turnovers, but that can likely be chalked up to first-game jitters. In other words, that’s not a real problem. 

Conversely, the Lakers are lost. They have problems they don’t know how to fix. They have holes they can’t plug. Westbrook clearly doesn’t fit and no amount of preseason platitudes can smooth that wrinkle. And without guys who can consistently make 3s, defenses are going to roll over 37-year-old James and injury-prone Davis. 

While the Clippers are surrounded by a sense of optimism, the Lakers are drowning in a feeling of impending doom. 

The Clippers entered Thursday’s game having won seven straight games against the Lakers. And with 17 purple and gold championship banners bearing witness, the Clippers once again showed that they’re indubitably the top team in the city. 

The teams are neighbors. 

But right now they’re worlds apart.

Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the league for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @melissarohlin.

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