Welcome in to the full recap of the Lakers' Christmas Day matchup vs. the LA Clippers where the Clippers looked like they were gonna wrap this up as a route, but the Lakers made one hell of a surging comeback in the 4th quarter even though it was in a losing effort, ending up in a 94-84 defeat.
First off, Merry Christmas my fellow Laker brethren. I hope you guys had are having a good time, celebrating with your family and friends and unwrapping all kinds of goodies under the Christmas tree. Now onto this game, this game was a "snoozer" in the first three quarters. The Lakers were not making any kinds of shots, not even from the free throw line and they were committing all kinds of turnovers, allowing the Clippers to widen the lead. Then in the 4th quarter, the Lakers surged out of nowhere when it was supposed to be garbage time for the Clippers. It was a nice tease and giving us Laker fans something to wake up from off of this boring X-Mas game throughout the first three quarters.
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D'Angelo Russell, 16 points, 7-13 shooting, 7 rebounds. In evaluating Russell's performance off the bench during this season, it is rather inconsistent. Russell will have a decent game in one game and then the next, he will be a non-factor. This counts as one of the decent games Russell had off the bench. He got off to a good start by shooting a near-perfect 5-6 from the field and as the game went on, he started to to show activity all-around with those 7 rebounds on his stat line. Some highlights he had this game: blocking Jamal Crawford and finding a cutting Marcelo Huertas for his only assist of the game. He was one of the guys that lead the charge in a surging 4th quarter.
Julius Randle, 11 points, 3-11 shooting, 8 rebounds. Julius Randle's stat line is ugly. However, due to his performance in the 4th quarter, we'll give him a positive here. His only three pointer of the game was the spark plug for the Lakers' attempted rally, but he showed more effort on the defensive end, grabbing every rebound from every missed Clipper shot in sight, making some hustle plays, and pushing the ball after playing good defense. And he's the only guy to have one of the better free throw shooting percentage because the Lakers couldn't capitalize on the free throw line.
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Free throw shooting. Throughout three quarters, the Lakers were shooting 9-21 from the field. When they had that rally in the 4th, the first we'll look at is the horrid free throw stat line in which the Lakers would've given themselves a chance to win an upset had they made their free throws. Kobe Bryant missed a couple of free throws, Lou Williams missed some free throws, D'Angelo Russell missed his only pair of free throws. If the Clippers had kept this to a blowout, we wouldn't be talking about this, but knowing the final outcome, the free throws hurt in the long run. Nonetheless, the Lakers finished 13-25 at the free throw line.
Turnovers. Though the Clippers committed the most turnovers due to the Lakers' relentless 4th quarter efforts, the Lakers were gift wrapping turnovers all game long. Head-to-head-wise against this Clippers team, the Lakers are turnover prone against them and this game is added to the recent trend. If you want to know why the Clippers keep blowing the Lakers out, it's because the Lakers can't take care of the ball and it results into easy points for the Clippers.
Conclusion
Overall, this game had only one good quarter, the 4th quarter, but everything else was just dominated by the Clippers. However, it was a good effort by the Lakers. They could've stopped trying, knowing it was a blowout, but they kept hanging in there and they made the Clippers' glaring hole known that they don't have a bench to close out the game when their starters get the job done early on in the game. At the end of the day, it's a loss and we are reminded once again that the Lakers are doing a tank job for the top pick. Well, this concludes my Christmas stretch by covering the Raiders game last night on Christmas Eve and covering this game tonight on Christmas Day. It's always the thought that counts and this is my gift for you guys by covering the blog on back-to-back nights. Merry Christmas to all and to all and good night. I'll see you guys later.
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