Norman Powell scored a team-high 27 points off the bench, Kawhi Leonard added 25 points as the Clippers defeated the Lakers 125-118 on Wednesday.
The question on which each rival’s playoff hopes hinge is who they will be once they get there.
‘He figures it out wherever he goes,’ Pelicans coach Willie Green said of Russell Westbrook, who fits well with the Clippers after rocky Lakers tenure. Are the Lakers the team that, playing on a second consecutive night or not, looked completely out of sorts before halftime, with LeBron James held to three points in one of his least productive halves of his storied career? Or will they be the suddenly gritty group whose defense – which has allowed the third-lowest shooting percentage on defended shots for the past six weeks – rarely keeps them out of a game.
The win also guaranteed the Lakers a berth in the play-in tournament. Coach Darvin Ham wasn’t ready to celebrate, but acknowledged it as a significant achievement after the team’s 2-10 start. What was clear for days was Russell Westbrook’s readiness to exact a measure of revenge against the team that dealt him away in February. When the lasers stopped and the house lights lifted, Westbrook emerged from the darkness underneath the basket closest to the Lakers’ bench, looking the other direction from his former teammates.
Playing a lineup of three reserve guards in Powell, Bones Hyland and Terance Mann, the Clippers wrested control again to lead 54-38 seven minutes before halftime behind 8-of-12 three-point shooting.
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