12/25: Christmas Day - LAKERS vs. Clippers 1st Half Open Thread and Discussion

Welcome to the first half of the Christmas Day battle for L.A. as the Lakers take on the Clippers. Leave a comment below to share your thoughts on the game.

Q2

LAC 58 LAL 55

Lakers are hanging around out there. Entertaining quarter to say the least as both teams exchanged baskets. Offensively, the Lakers picked it up late in the 1st quarter. Lou Williams made a couple of buckets to spark plug the offense. As usual, the Lakers can always rely on Sweet Lou to come off the bench and provide scoring when needed. Hopefully, he starts to heat it up in the 2nd half considering the way this game is going. Brandon Ingram continues to struggle with his outside shot, but I liked how aggressive he was in this quarter and that's encouraging to see. We know Ingram is a smart player for his age and we want to see Ingram to be more aggressive to the hoop. He made some spurts as I said and he's almost in double-figure point totals. Nick Young leads the team in scoring with 11 points. All of his shots were from deep and considering the defense cannot stop the Clippers offense, as long as Swaggy P hits his 3-point shots, the Lakers have a chance. Defensively, they're displaying the same problems they've probably shown in their December slump. J.J. Redick and the Clippers are having their way and that's a scary thought since the Clippers are playing without Griffin or CP3. Luckily, the Lakers are only down 3. They have to continue to move the ball and strive for high percentage shots. Defensively, I don't know what to say. They need to have someone other than J.J. Redick to take a shot for the Clippers. The 2nd half open thread will open shortly.

Q1

LAC 31 LAL 27

Clippers playing without Chris Paul and Blake Griffin? This should be a lot less difficult. Not the case that first quarter. But, the Lakers are making a run as the quarter winded down. Of course, I see with my own eyes that the defense continues to be an issue. There's a reason why the Lakers have been slumping this month because they couldn't concentrate their energy on the defensive of the ball. The start was rough here as the Clippers offense were having their way. J.J. Redick was hot early to balloon the Clipper lead. Laker offense was a little stagnant midway through the quarter, but they've picked it up late to cut this deficit to four.