Once the home city of the Los Angeles Lakers for 32 seasons and six NBA championships, the team returns to Inglewood, Calif., on Sunday, this time as the visitor.
The Lakers will travel down the freeway to the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, who built a $2 billion venue a mere mile away from The Forum, the old home of their in-town rival.
The game also marks the first of four matchups between the teams this season, all of which will wrap up by March 2.
The Lakers enter after consecutive victories, the most recent of which was a 102-101 nail-biter over the visiting Brooklyn Nets that came as star Anthony Davis watched from the bench while dealing with plantar fasciitis.
The Lakers nearly blew an eight-point lead with 3:45 remaining but held on as Austin Reaves scored a career-high 38 points, with 15 coming in the final quarter. LeBron James added 29 points with eight assists.
Lakers head coach JJ Redick expects Davis to return to the court Sunday.
Reaves wasn’t just stepping up to fill the Davis scoring void, he has taken on a higher profile role in the offense for a month, during a time when point guard D’Angelo Russell was traded to the Nets on Dec. 29.
“He’s in his process and he’s taking the opportunity and running with it, literally running with it,” James said about Reaves. “And I love every moment that he’s given the opportunity to go out and showcase his talent with the best players in the world, and he’s showing every night that he belongs. It’s a beautiful thing to see.”
The Clippers are on a three-game winning streak that included a rousing 126-67 victory over the Nets on Wednesday. Brooklyn then turned around and nearly beat the Lakers.
Most recently, the Clippers earned a 118-89 road victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday when Norman Powell scored 23 points, James Harden added 19 and the team shot 56.4 percent from the floor, including 43.5 percent from 3-point range.
Kawhi Leonard has played in four games this season since returning from chronic knee discomfort, but did not play at Portland on the second night of a back-to-back. He did have a season-best 23 points against the Nets on 8-of-11 shooting.
Leonard is expected to face the Lakers after playing a season-high 24 minutes on Wednesday and getting direction from head coach Tyronn Lue to assume a bigger part of the offense.
“It felt good, but like I said before, I’m taking my time,” Leonard said. “Just because I made shots doesn’t mean (everything), to me at least. It’s about how I’m moving and feeling.
“We pushed my minutes up from the last three so tonight I was able to play 24 minutes. (Lue) allowed me to bring the ball up and get us into the pace of the offense. I thought that helped a little bit.”
The Clippers are now set to play four games in five nights, with a quick turnaround to face the Chicago Bulls on Monday before games against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday and the Washington Wizards on Thursday. All four games are at home, where the team is 14-6.
–Field Level Media
