Lakers at Clippers
The Los Angeles Clippers are surging back toward the top of the Western Conference with five straight wins while their cross-arena rivals are barreling towards the basement. The Clippers will try to take advantage of the defense-less Los Angeles Lakers when they serve as host on Saturday.
First-year Lakers coach Luke Walton is trying to build a winning program and tried to find some positives from his team getting smoked 134-94 on Thursday by a San Antonio Spurs' squad that was coming off a loss. "The way they came out after one loss, how that made them play, how sharp they were tonight," Walton told reporters. "There’s a lot to learn from being in the game, watching that game, being a part of that game. Give a ton of credit to that group over there. I didn’t think we showed up ready to meet that challenge." The Clippers are 13 games ahead of the Lakers at the midway point of the season and are finding their way back into the win column on the defensive end while holding four of the last five opponents under 100 points. "It’s like we’re a bunch of bulldogs out there," reserve point guard Raymond Felton told the Los Angeles Times. "We’re getting after it. We’re extremely athletic, extremely quick."
TV: 3:30 p.m. ET, Spectrum SportsNet (Lakers), Prime Ticket (Clippers)
ABOUT THE LAKERS (15-28): Los Angeles appeared to be trending up with wins in three of four but suffered a 21-point loss at home to Portland before the drubbing in San Antonio. “In my opinion, we gave up too quickly,” Walton told reporters of the loss to the Spurs. “We gave up as if, ‘Oh, this is going to be too hard for us tonight,’ which is not OK. Which is not the way we play as a team or the way we want to play as a team." The lone positive was the play of power forward Julius Randle, who bounced back from a six-point effort against Portland to score a team-high 22 against San Antonio.
ABOUT THE CLIPPERS (27-14): The Clippers dropped six in a row to end 2016 - the last two by a combined 50 points - but are undefeated in 2017 thanks to the defensive focus and the return of point guard Chris Paul over the last three games. Paul is averaging 17 points on 55.2 percent shooting and 12 assists in those three contests to help the team as it continues to operate without star power forward Blake Griffin (knee). Paul is getting plenty of help from center DeAndre Jordan, who posted 20 rebounds three times in the last five games and is averaging 17.4 boards in that span.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Lakers rookie SF Brandon Ingram suffered a sprained wrist in practice on Wednesday and had a string of four straight games scoring in double figures come to an end with nine points on Thursday.
2. Clippers SG J.J. Redick is averaging 21.4 points - up from a season average of 15.7 - in the last five games.
3. Paul sat out on Christmas Day as the Lakers snapped an 11-game skid in the series with a 111-102 triumph.