Alright welcome in to the full recap of the game between the Lakers and the Clippers where the Clippers yet again, showing the changing of the guard in the city of LA, blowing out the Lakers 142-94 to hand the Lakers their worst home loss in franchise history.
Yeah, you guys are reading this right. I said in the full recap in the Pelicans that the Clippers won't blow it this time around because they are primed to get the highest seed in the West possible considering there are a few games left before playoff time. 1st quarter, looked like this was going to be a game and then in the next 3 quarters, the Clippers stopped toying around and started turning up the Jets.
The Positives
I could be saying that this game had no positives, the way it turned out, but I still gotta acknowledge a couple bright spots this game. Pau Gasol, once again the Lakers' top performer with 21 points and 7 rebounds on 8-15 shooting. Gasol has been our only bright spot this season and the most consistent out of all players. No surprise here, moving on.
Kent Bazemore, 14 points, 6 assists on 4-9 shooting. Though he didn't have as great of a game he had Tuesday night, but I can't deny his willingness to play hard. Even though the Lakers were getting blown out this game, Bazemore was still there trying to earn stripes still fighting for loose balls, generating steals, penetrating to the basket while everyone else just waved their white flags up this game. I commend him for that, a lot of young players play hard to earn their spot in the pros regardless of how the game is going and Bazemore evidently displays that since being traded from Golden State.
The Negatives
The negatives just continue to pile up.
Energy. The Lakers came out fighting in the 1st quarter, but the next 3 quarter, the Clippers sucked all of that out. There's a lot to blame on the players for not displaying 100% effort. Defense yet again was atrocious and the Clippers exploited that with their game beating the Lakers with athleticism and range.
Rebounding. The Lakers were out-rebounded 64 to 33. 64 to 33. Breaking it down on both ends, the Clippers out-rebound the Lakers defensively 48 to 29 and offensively, 16 to 4. This is a continuation on the energy part because the Lakers didn't make any effort to box out. Matt Barnes was machine this game, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, as usual were on their A game on the boards. It's pretty inexcusable to see that stat line because the effort to gather the ball was pathetic all game long.
Point guard play. Final stat line for Jordan Farmar and Kendall Marshall combined: 11 points, 4 rebounds, 10 assists, 4-15 from the field. Decent numbers for a single point guard, but that stat line shows that the point guard play is getting even worse for the Lakers. Farmar had a couple of great games, the Sacramento one in particular where he scored 30 points and shot 8-10 from beyond the arc. Here, Farmar had an off game and played conservative for the most part of this game. We all know the story with Marshall, he's fallen off the cliff a bit and it's putting his future as the Lakers' long term starting point guard in serious jeopardy.
Wesley Johnson, 2 points, 1-9 shooting from the field, 0-7 from beyond the arc. His defense was decent at best this game as he came up with 3 steals, but Wes too is starting to fall off the cliff offensively, after displaying decent numbers against Portland and pretty much winning the game for the Lakers, he's now only contributed 9 points on a combined 3-14 shooting the last two games.
Conclusion
Well, that is 2 hours and 30 minutes of something I'll never get back. How far the Lakers are going to get for the top pick is beyond me. If I'm ESPN/ABC, I should pull off the 4th and final game against the Clippers on their home floor on April 6. The Lakers go on the road tomorrow against Denver, and even though the Nuggets are bad too, Denver is always a rough place to play at considering the high altitude. Then, the Lakers have a Sunday showcase game against the Thunder. Wow, talk about more games to pile up on the loss column, unless the Lakers show some heart and pull off an upset like the Portland game in either one of the two games coming up. I won't see you guys tomorrow for the Nuggets game considering it's not on TV, but I will see you guys on Sunday for the OKC game. I'm out.
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