Alright welcome in to the full recap of the Lakers' matchup against hallway rival, Clippers where the little brother gets the best of big brother once again as the Clippers eek out a win 118-111 over the Lakers after pulling out a close one over the Thunder without Kevin Durant just last night.
First off, Raider Nation, Laker Nation, Happy Halloween from yours truly of the True Raider Laker blog. Can't ask for any other trick or treat other than covering three games over the weekend! Tonight was the first one, second one against the Warriors tomorrow night, and the showdown with the defending champs in Seattle to wrap it up. Going back to the game overall, a lot expected the Lakers to make a lot of excessive turnovers and the Clippers would just mop the floor over them. This is not the case as the Lakers managed to make the game competitive, not giving the Clippers any easy transition points. We can live with Blake Griffin going off, but Jamal Crawford became the X factor for the Clippers and momentum started falling against the Lakers as soon as Crawford got hot.
The Positives
Jordan Hill, 23 points, 5 rebounds, 10-15 shooting. It's funny after seeing Jordan Hill's performance, that was the kind of game Mike D'Antoni expected out of Hill when D'Antoni was coaching the Lakers. Hill was known for his post up and all-out hustling for the ball, but D'Antoni didn't like that and he was out of favor. After seeing the kind of performance Hill made against the Clippers, that was like a big middle finger to D'Antoni. I was totally floored as well that Hill was making these jump shots he rarely makes. Shooting nights, coming from a big man that doesn't use it too much is rare to see, but hopefully this is a confidence booster for Hill to use it more and add another dimension to his game.
Jeremy Lin, 17 points, 9 assists, 7-13 shooting. We saw a little tease from Linsanity tonight. The first two games, he was pretty shaky, a lot of us can tell. This game should also be a confidence booster for Lin because he was much more aggressive, shooting the 3 ball, attacking the basket, and making the extra pass. He's not in full control of the ball, but this performance was a lot better and it should benefit Lin going forward.
The Negatives
Kobe Bryant, 4th quarter. Kobe finished with 21 points, provided some vintage highlights this game, but this stat line will please some of his haters, 1-7 down the stretch. Some of his jump shots were due to fatigue, others were ill-advised. Us Laker fans we are used to that, so Kobe is pretty much borderline between positive and negative. He got aggressive when needed and got teammates involved, but the down the stretch in the 4th quarter, he slowed down and got cold.
Carlos Boozer, 9 points, 7 rebounds, 3-9 shooting. Boozer usually puts up solid double-double numbers, but he wasn't performing up to his average this game. Lakers got him involved early and provided some lift, but he couldn't step it up in his offense/scoring when needed.
Conclusion
Overall, I am not mad about this game. I thought the Clippers were going to come storming out of the gate early after almost blowing the game last night against the Thunder without Kevin Durant. They did early, but the Lakers hung around, turned up the defensive activity and managed to get their offense going. Tomorrow the Lakers go up against another good team in the division, the Warriors at the Oracle. Usually the knack on teams playing back-to-back, they put up an inspiring performance on the first game and then the next game, they come out sluggish. Hopefully, the Lakers do not undergo that same fate, although they got routed in their first back-to-back series to open the season. I'll see you guys tomorrow night for that game. Enjoy eating the rest of your candy tonight.
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