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The Los Angeles Lakers host the crosstown rival Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night at 10 PM ET on ESPN.
This is the third matchup between the two teams this season, having split two contests at the Clippers’ new Intuit Dome in Inglewood earlier this year. Norman Powell had 22 points while Ivica Zubac went for 21 points and 19 rebounds and James Harden added 21 points and 12 assists in a 116-102 Clippers victory in January.
The Lakers won 122-97 earlier this month, as LeBron James had 26 points, nine assists and eight rebounds while Austin Reaves chipped in with 20 points and nine assists. This is the first of two games the two teams will contest at Crypto.com Arena over three days as they close out their season series on Sunday.
The Lakers had won three straight and 15-of-19 going into their home game with the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday as the Clippers serve as the second game of a back-to-back. Coach JJ Redick’s squad is fourth in the Western Conference. The Clippers are sixth in the West but have lost three of their last four games.
Let’s break down each team’s recent play while previewing this matchup and our Lakers @ Clippers NBA pick.
The Lakers are surging right now, and the recent blockbuster trade for Luka Doncic is beginning to pay dividends. Despite being sidelined for a month with a calf injury, Doncic has returned and provided the spark Los Angeles was looking for when it shipped prized big man Anthony Davis and Max Christie to Dallas for the five-time All-Star. He is averaging 19 points, nine rebounds and seven assists in his first five games in a Lakers uniform.
That includes a 32-point, 10-rebound, seven-assist performance in a 123-100 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Saturday that ended their nine-game win streak. He added his fourth triple-double this season with 19 points, 15 rebounds, and 12 assists, as the Lakers knocked off Doncic’s former team, the Dallas Mavericks, last Tuesday.
Prior to the Lakers’ game with the Timberwolves, James continues his torrid age-40 form. He leads the Lakers with 24.7 points, 8.7 assists and 7.8 rebounds. That includes 40 points and eight rebounds, James’ second 40-point performance this month, in a 110-102 victory at the Portland Trail Blazers a week ago. He added 25 points, nine rebounds and five assists in the win over Denver and led the team with 27 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the victory over Dallas.
Austin Reaves is adding 19.2 points and 6.1 assists for the Lakers, while Rui Hachimura, who came over from the Washington Wizards in a trade last season, is adding 13.5 points and 5.3 rebounds.
While the Lakers are making their move up the Western Conference ladder, the Clippers are working their way down. The team is just 2-3 on its current season-long eight-game road trip.
Los Angeles is without leading scorer Powell (24.2 ppg), who has missed four straight games with left knee soreness. He averaged 21 points in the two earlier games with the Lakers. The Clippers are getting intermittent contributions from Kawhi Leonard, who is averaging 16.9 points per game this season. However, he has only participated in 17 contests so far. He did have 19 in the team’s victory over the Lakers last month.
Leonard also had 17 points and eight rebounds in last night’s 122-117 victory over the Chicago Bulls. Harden led the team with 30 points and added six assists, Zubac had 10 points and 10 rebounds, and Derrick Jones Jr. contributed 16 points. Amir Coffey scored 20 points and recent pickup Bogdan Bogdanovic added 14 points, his fourth straight game in double figures, off the bench. The Clippers are now 13-16 on the road.
Harden has performed up to par this season for Los Angeles. He is averaging 21.8 points and his 8.5 assists per game is good for sixth in the NBA. Zubac is fourth in the league with 12.5 rebounds per game, and he’s averaging 15.3 points per game as well. He had 13 points and 15 rebounds in a 106-97 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Monday night, and went for 20 points and 15 rebounds in a loss at the Milwaukee Bucks a week ago.
On paper, with Doncic playing and Powell expected to be out, this appears to be a mismatch. Prior to the Minnesota matchup, James was averaging 29 points over his last nine games and Doncic was averaging 25.5 points in his last two games after a slow start with his new team.
Harden has been impressive of late and should continue his scoring surge against the Lakers. He has averaged nearly 25 points in the Clippers’ last eight games and he’ll likely need to score at least that many points for his team to have any chance. Zubac should have another strong performance in the paint, but the Clippers are just too short-handed right now to mount a serious enough threat to the ascending Lakers.
Brian has been writing about sports professionally for 25 years, specializing in the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, men's college basketball and football, and soccer. He covered high school, collegiate and professional sports in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area for two decades. His written work has appeared in several print and online publications since 1999.