Clippers keep wins rolling over Lakers in 93-87 Las Vegas Summer League victory

The story heading into Saturday evening’s Las Vegas Summer League bout between the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers was how little brother yanked Kawhi Leonard out from under big brother.

Nothing summarized that vibe more than LeBron James and Anthony Davis sitting on one corner of the court (semi-awkwardly placed right next to Clippers executive Jerry West), with Doc Rivers and half the Clippers roster on the other. While James, Davis and the Lakers parent organization licked their wounds, Clippers coaches, players and executives puffed out their chest. Clipper Darrell was also there but no one really cares about him.

Oh, and a game was played, by the way. The Clippers opened strong and held on to win, 93-87.

In that game, the summer league Lakers competed despite being undermanned and less talented overall. The Lakers are still missing their only draft pick, Talen Horton-Tucker, who has been ruled out of Las Vegas Summer League with a stress reaction in his foot. Zach Norvell Jr. (who has been impressive both in Sacramento and in Vegas) joined Horton-Tucker on the sideline with an SI joint contusion.

The Lakers trailed big from the start (at one point by as many as 21) and for the vast majority of the game, but crawled all the way back with a much better second half effort to at one point take a third-quarter lead.

The fourth quarter started much like the beginning of the game. The Clippers opened up a decent lead fairly quickly. The Lakers fought hard to keep it close and hung around, but were too depleted to legitimately threaten.

The Lakers have a day off Sunday and resume action Monday against the Golden State Warriors at 8:30 PM PT in the Thomas and Mack Center.

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