LOS ANGELES – Twelve days away from home left the Lakers beleaguered and certainly beaten. They bore the marks of a team on a slide. But within that fatigue and frustration, Lakers coach Luke Walton perceived a certain edge. Much of the youthful goofiness that defined the team to a hot early season run had been replaced by a serious tone.
After a sluggish first half Sunday against the Clippers in a primetime Christmas matchup, something clicked in the third quarter, as the Lakers ran out to a 111-102 victory.
The win was only the Lakers’ second in their last 14 games. It snapped a four-game losing skid and, more to the point, an 11-game losing streak to the Clippers.
“It was needed,” Walton said. “It was. It’s one win, we all know that that’s not that big of a deal in the long NBA season, but for us it felt nice to get this one back home.”
The Lakers (12-22) entered the night with no positive momentum, facing an opponent that has tormented them for years, and, for the first time on Christmas in more than two decades, no Kobe Bryant on the roster.
They’d had little reason for optimism.
Except this: The Clippers were on their own run of bad luck. Already without Blake Griffin until at least late January, L.A.’s other home team had to do without Chris Paul. The Clippers All-Star guard was scratched from the Clippers lineup about an hour before tip-off.
For the first two quarter, the Lakers did little with this holiday gift, playing for the first time, as Walton noted, since flying across the country from Orlando late Friday night.
Then the third quarter came, and if there was a team in need of a rallying moment, it was these Lakers.
Buoyed by a breakout performance from Timofey Mozgov and solid support from Luol Deng – some return on investment from that summer spending – the Lakers turned a three-point halftime deficit into a 15-point lead entering the fourth.
They outscored the Clippers 34-16 in the period.
“I thought we took our jobs very seriously in the third quarter,” Walton said.
Starting with a Timofey Mozgov jumper 14 seconds after halftime, the Lakers scored 13 points in the third before the Clippers even got on the board. Mozgov delivered 12 points in the quarter on his way to 19 points, tied with Nick Young for the team high in scoring.
It was a bonus for the Lakers that their other big-money player, Deng, also delivered. He added 13 points and 12 rebounds, while sharing the load in the third quarter.
“I think we played that way because of, yes, having an edge from losing,” Walton said.
For the first time in more than a year – since April 12, 2015, in fact – all five Lakers starters reached double figures, including Julius Randle who, after missing the last two games for the birth of his son, tallied 13 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists.
“It’s a really good Christmas present for him,” Randle said after the game. “I’m ready to get home to him.”
The Lakers lead ballooned to as many as 18 points, but was trimmed back to under 10 in the final minutes. Walton had seen it all before in the last month, and after the game cautioned his players that they can’t let off the gas in such instances.
“It’s the little things that almost happened tonight that are going to hold us back,” he said.
The Clippers (22-10) dropped their second straight game and, despite 22 points apiece from J.J. Redick and Jamal Crawford, could not overcome the absences of Griffin and Paul. Redick left the game in the second half with a hamstring injury.
It did not help that DeAndre Jordan was quiet offensively, scoring just 7 points on 3-of-4 shooting. He added 10 rebounds and 6 assists.
“He’s a threat to everyone,” Walton earned before the game. “He’s one of the premier bigs in this league, but he’s a player that will make you pay 100 percent of the time if you miss a defensive rotation.”
Contact the writer: boram@scng.com
