Kawhi Leonard’s triple-double helps Clippers fend off LeBron-less Lakers – Daily News

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Kawhi Leonard’s triple-double helps Clippers fend off LeBron-less Lakers – Daily News

LOS ANGELES — Tyronn Lue didn’t want to talk about records, either long-standing ones or what had transpired in the past two games of the Clippers-Lakers rivalry. None of it mattered.

The Clippers’ head coach only knew one thing: the Lakers are not to be taken lightly on any given night or year. Even when LeBron James doesn’t play.

“They’re a good team. We’re a good team and anybody can be beat,” Lue said.

In the latest version of their 237-game series, the Clippers proved to be the better team. Kawhi Leonard had a 25-point triple-double, James Harden had 23 points and 10 assists, and the Clippers beat the LeBron-less Lakers, 127-116, at Crypto.com Arena to secure their third straight win and their 11th in the past 13 games.

A fourth straight “road” loss dropped the Lakers back under .500 at 22-23.

The Clippers (27-14) came out with the mindset that they were not going to let the Lakers take another game from them, with or without James. While they started strong, Lue was disappointed that they didn’t finish stronger.

The Clippers had 11 of their 15 turnovers in the second half and allowed the Lakers to close within two points twice down the stretch.

“It started in the first half and it kind of bled over into the second half and we weren’t really good defensively,” Lue said. “A lot of rotations were messed up, not getting back in transition and all the things we talked about doing, we didn’t do a good job tonight.

“Those are things we got to be sharp with every single night.”

Leading 110-108 midway through the fourth, the Clippers scored nine consecutive points to open an 11-point lead. Leonard found Norman Powell for a corner 3-pointer and Leonard hit Paul George with a pass for a layup. Powell scored again before Leonard made two free throws for a 119-108 advantage. But the Lakers cut it to single digits on free throws by Jarred Vanderbilt and a basket by Austin Reaves.

“They got guys that are going to make you pay if you make a mistake,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “And you damn near have to play perfect basketball to beat these guys. They’re in a really good rhythm.

“But that said, I think the lesson tonight is how we competed, how we competed together. … Disappointed in the loss but proud of how our guys competed minus LeBron.”

Each time the Lakers inched close, the Clippers looked to the 3-point line, a source of comfort lately. They came into the game shooting 46.2% from 3-point range in their past 10 games and they went a step further Tuesday.

Behind the sharp-shooting of Harden, the Clippers made 14 of 27 from behind the arc (51.9%).

“Everybody contributed to the win,” Leonard said. “That’s what we got to do, knock down shots when they’re open and tonight we did.”

When they weren’t hitting 3-pointers, Leonard and George were connecting on short-range shots and were able to re-establish a 10-point lead with 2:35 left to play. The Lakers never cut the margin to single digits again.

“They played well,” said George, who scored 17 points despite a sore groin. “I thought they intentionally played fast to try to throw us off. It got us out of matchups and had us scrambling to find matchups and who we were supposed to be matched up to. So that was their game plan.

“It made it challenging for us regardless of who they had on the floor, but I thought we stayed poised. Every game ain’t going to be perfect. Although we wanted to have this game decided way earlier than it was, I thought we stayed poised and did our job to finish the game up.”

Leonard shot 11 for 16 from the field on the way to his second career triple-double, which included 11 rebounds and 10 assists. George shot 8 for 12 and added five rebounds and three assists, while Terance Mann and Norman Powell also had 17 points apiece and Russell Westbrook had 16 points and six rebounds.

Despite being without James, the Lakers’ offense was solid behind D’Angelo Russell (27 points, 10 assists) and Anthony Davis (26 points, 12 rebounds), but they couldn’t match the Clippers’ intensity.

“Yeah, I mean it is a different dynamic with him not being out there, but this is the NBA, and you see how guys came in and stepped up and made big shots for them and they stayed in the game pretty much the whole way,” Leonard said. “We just got to be focused on games like this.

“They’re a good transition team and we allowed them to play to their strengths. We just got to be better at that.”

The Clippers, who begin a seven-game road trip on Friday in Toronto, came out with the mental focus that Lue wanted, one that said that they were not going to let the Lakers take another game from them. They avoided another slow start, coming out with an aggressive attack that put the Lakers on their heels early on.

James sat at the end of the Lakers’ bench, an imposing figure dressed in green. A lingering left ankle injury that had sidelined him for four previous games this season kept him from playing in the third game in the cross-arena rivalry this season.

As tempting as it was, Lue didn’t take James’ absence for granted. He said the Clippers still needed to play hard and make sure they executed on both sides of the ball.

“We know LeBron’s extremely important to this team and everything he does with his team,” Lue said, “So, we definitely can’t let our guard down.”

That’s because the Clippers still had Davis and Russell to contend with, both of whom have been playing at a high level. Davis came into the game averaging 24.9 points and 12.2 rebounds.

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