BY: VENANCIO VALENCIA — SPORTS ON AIR — CORRESPONDENT
INGLEWOOD — The highly-anticipated duel between crosstown rivals quickly turned one-sided when the LA Clippers pounced on the Lakers early on the way to a 116-102 win at the Intuit Dome.
A balanced offense and a 64-point first half surge was all it took to stymie LeBron James and the visiting Lakers.
Norman Powell led the Clippers with 22 points while Ivica Zubac and James Harden added 21 apiece. Kawhi Leonard joined the fray with 19 points and four assists to help the Clips shoot a high 52.8 percent (47-of-89).
This was nearly a wire-to-wire triumph. After the Lakers took a 2-0 lead, the Clippers punched back with 13 unanswered points to set the pace. They never looked back since and led by as many as 26.
LeBron James tallied 25 points, 11 rebounds and four assists to pace the purple-and-gold. Anthony Davis pitched in 16 and 10 rebounds while Rui Hacimura accounted for 19.
But they were beaten in points off the paint, 54-48 and were out-rebounded 38-33, which proved to be a sour point for Lakers head coach J.J. Redick.
“We don’t have a huge margin for error. It has to be emphasized daily to touch the paint, to play paint-to-great mentality, and make the extra pass. We don’t have a guy on our team that’s going to necessarily always draw two to the ball,” Redick told reporters at his post-game press conference.
To make matters worse, the Lakers had 14 turnovers to the Clips’ 14 and were out-shot from 3-point range — 11-9.
