For a significant chunk of Friday night at Crypto.com Arena, it looked like ghosts of the Lakers’ past – in the form of Clippers forward Rui Hachimura and center Brook Lopez – were going to be the reasons for their first loss.
Especially with their superstar guard Luka Doncic struggling to find an offensive rhythm.
But fellow star guard Austin Reaves showed why the franchise invested the big bucks in him over the summer, providing his team with a spark en route to a 125-117 victory to put the Lakers at 2-0 early in the season.
With the game tied at 64 at halftime, and the Lakers struggling to create separation, taking a small 73-72 lead early in the third, Reaves took matters into his own hands, sparking a 16-4 run that was the difference in the game.
The run started with Reaves converting a tough, physical layup over Isaiah Jackson before assisting Walker Kessler for an alley-oop dunk and Matisse Thybulle on a corner 3-pointer.
From there, Reaves took over, scoring the game’s next nine points to put the Lakers up 89-76 after a pull-up 3 for the team’s largest lead of the game at the time.
Reaves scored 13 points in the third, in addition to 3 assists, for nearly half of his scoring total (28 points).
The Lakers nearly squandered Reaves’ run, allowing the Clippers to cut their lead to 120-113 late in the fourthm but they never relinquished the lead.
Kessler had 22 points, 8 rebounds, 6 blocked shots, 3 steals and 3 steals.
Doncic finished with 23 points (8-of-21 shooting), 7 assists, and 6 rebounds.
Reaves was once again ultra-efficient, shooting 10 of 13 from the field (3 of 5 on 3s, 5 of 6 on free throws) to go with 9 assists for the game.
Lopez had 22 points and 4 rebounds off the bench, while Hachimura had 16 points and 6 rebounds against his former team.
Darius Garland led the Clippers with 26 points and 6 assists.
