Clippers at Lakers
The battle of Los Angeles in the NBA has been pretty one-sided over the past few seasons, with the Clippers working among the elite teams in the NBA and the Lakers lounging in the lottery. The Lakers will try to turn the tables and snap an 11-game skid in the series when they host the Clippers on Sunday.
The Lakers started out solid behind young stars Julius Randle and D'Angelo Russell, but dropped 12 of their last 13 to drift back into the bottom third of the Western Conference and limp home after a 1-6 road trip. "We should’ve won some of those," Lakers coach Luke Walton told reporters after finishing out the trip with a 109-90 loss at Orlando on Friday. "We’re obviously disappointed. But we’re not going to quit." The Clippers are not exactly at the top of their game at the moment with All-Star forward Blake Griffin on the shelf and suffered a 90-88 home loss to the struggling Dallas Mavericks on Friday. Fellow All-Star Chris Paul (hamstring) sat out Friday as well but could return by Sunday.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, Prime Ticket (Clippers), Spectrum Sportsnet (Lakers)
ABOUT THE CLIPPERS (22-9): Los Angeles' modified lineup included Paul Pierce and Raymond Felton in the starting five on Friday, and the loss of the two players who handle the ball most was evident in the 20 turnovers the team committed. The Clippers' most productive play came off the bench as Jamal Crawford continued a slow climb out of a shooting slump. The former Sixth Man of the Year scored in single digits in four straight games before going 5-of-9 from the floor en route to 11 points on Thursday and scoring a game-high 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting Friday.
ABOUT THE LAKERS (11-22): Los Angeles squandered 19-point leads in consecutive losses at Charlotte and Miami but could not find a way to build a lead in Orlando and never recovered from a deep hole. Randle missed the final two games on the trip due to the birth of his child but Russell scored 15 points and saw some progress despite the team shooting 35.6 percent from the floor against a sub-.500 team. "We’re slowly figuring it out," Russell told the Los Angeles Daily News. "We’re definitely not quitting. We’re just trying to figure it out."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Clippers G J.J. Redick was the only starter to score in double figures with 11 points on Friday - his eighth straight game in double figures.
2. Lakers C Tarik Black (ankle) sat out the last four games and is day-to-day.
3. The Clippers earned a 94-84 win while serving as the road team in last season's Christmas meeting.