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We have the battle for LA in the NBA tonight, with a ton of star power on the slate. The LeBron James-led Lakers are taking on Kawhi Leonard, James Harden and the Clippers. The Lakers shocked the NBA world by trading away Anthony Davis to the Mavericks for Luka Dončić. Currently, Dončić is sidelined with a calf injury, so he will not be making his Lakers debut tonight. But the show must go on.
Throughout the rest of this article, we’ll preview the Lakers-Clippers matchup and make an NBA pick.
The Lakers shook up the world with the trade, sending Anthony Davis and Max Christie to the Dallas Mavericks. The Lakers have played without Davis in their last two games and won both. They blew out the Wizards and then the Knicks on Saturday night.
LeBron James led the charge on Saturday with a 33-point, 12-assist, 11-rebound performance. Austin Reaves also had a huge game, continuing to step up in Davis’ absence by scoring 27 points, which helped move the Lakers record to 28-19.
It will be interesting to see what the Lakers do now since their rotation is shaken up. Say what you want about Max Christie and what he brought to the table, but the kid was playing 30+ minutes per game. That’s a big void, and now guys like Dalton Knecht, Gabe Vincent and Bronny James will need to step up until Luka returns from his calf injury. Dalton Knecht can give some scoring punch but can not provide what Christie did defensively. Gabe Vincent is undersized, and Bronny James is a decent defender but gives you nothing offensively. JJ Reddick will have his hands full trying to figure that part out.
The Clippers are finally healthy. Kawhi Leonard is back, and James Harden has steadied the ship, with the team sitting at a 28-21 record. They are just one game behind the Lakers for the fifth seed and have won four of their last six games, even after losing a shocker to the struggling Toronto Raptors on Sunday.
James Harden led the Clippers in that Raptors game with 25 points but was just 7-20 from the floor. Kawhi Leonard also struggled in his return to Toronto, where he won the Raptors a championship, going just 6-18 from the floor for 14 points. Ivica Zubac continued his strong season, scoring 18 points and grabbing eight rebounds.
The two-man game between Harden and Zubac has been great this year, helping the big man take a massive leap. He is averaging career highs in points (15.3), rebounds (12.7) and assists (2.5). The Clippers will look to exploit this against a smaller Lakers team following Anthony Davis’ departure.
We’ve seen this matchup once before this season, just a couple of weeks ago. The Lakers had Anthony Davis but lost 116-102. The Clippers had a well-balanced attack, with Leonard, Norman Powell, Harden and Zubac all scoring at least 19 points in that game. LeBron had a 25-11 double-double but it was not enough with the Clippers playing much more physical.
The Lakers had trouble controlling Zubac in that game, as he grabbed a whopping 19 rebounds, 8 of which were on the offensive end.
Without Anthony Davis, that will not get any easier tonight. Guys like Jaxson Hayes, Dorian Finney-Smith and Rui Hachimura must step up. That said, we don’t think the Lakers will be able to slow Ivica Zubac down tonight. At this point, the Lakers don’t have enough size inside to keep Zubac off the glass, which will likely lead to him having a big double-double. So, our Lakers vs Clippers NBA pick is for Ivica Zubac to grab at least 12 rebounds.
Dylan has had a love for sports since he was a kid. Four years ago, he decided to dive into the sports content-creating industry specializing in Fantasy Football, NFL and NBA. He has since had his work published on sites that include Fantasy Alarm, Fansided, and Fantasy Six Pack.