JJ Redick has foreshadowed a night like Wednesday evening.
When the Lakers would need to play or rely on players they normally don’t, for whatever the circumstances it may be for that given game.
And against the Clippers, which was the second night of the back-to-back set after Tuesday’s home loss to the Trail Blazers, the circumstances were being without superstar guard Luka Doncic (back tightness) and Ziaire Williams (left foot soreness).
Despite being without their best player and one of their starting wings, the Lakers got back on track after their first loss of the season, beating the Clippers 103-85.
With Doncic sidelined, a significant amount of attention turned to Austin Reaves, the Laker’s second-best player who has gotten off to a career-best start to the season.
The sixth-year guard has shown several times what he’s capable of doing when he’s the lone star in the lineup, recording box score numbers that rival All-NBA guards.
Clippers coach Ty Lue acknowledged the threat Reaves poses.
“He can beat you by himself. … He’s elite,” Lue said.
And the Clippers treated Reaves as such, using aggressive defensive coverages to disrupt a rhythm that’s been challenging for opponents to slow down since the start of the season.
Reaves finished with 16 points on 6-of-16 shooting to go with eight turnovers, ending his streak of 23-plus-point games while shooting at least 54% from the field in four games.
But the Lakers didn’t need a nuclear performance from Reaves.
They got Collin Sexton showing off why he’s nicknamed the “Young Bull”, with the veteran guard providing the “insanity”, as Redick put it, on both ends of the floor that the team has come to celebrate.
They got Quentin Grimes, who stepped into the starting lineup for the first time, having his best two-way performance.
And they got a near perfect shooting night from Matisse Thybulle.
Sexton finished with 21 points, scoring nine straight points late in the third quarter that pushed the Lakers’ lead from 13 to 20 points.
Grimes had a season-high 23 points to go along with five assists and four steals.
Thybulle scored 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting (4 of 6 on 3-pointers).
Veteran forward Jarred Vanderbilt made his season debut in light of the team’s injuries, finishing with an individual plus/minus of plus-22 in 21 minutes.
The Clippers were short-handed, as they have been for most of the season, without Rui Hachimura, Brandon Ingram and Bradley Beal.
