Nine-thousand, four-hundred and forty-eight days or so ago, Derek Harper split on a pair of free throws inside the Los Angeles Sports Arena with one second on the clock for the final point scored by a Lakers player in a true road game against the Clippers.
After March 9, 1999, anytime the Lakers and the Clippers played, they did so as roommates, as co-tenants of Staples Center (and later, Crypto.com Arena) — a bizarre situation that led to banners being covered and traffic jams underneath the building as players from both teams tried to exit out of a parking lot designed for one home team and not two.
Naturally, following their win against Brooklyn on Friday, that transportation issue was on LeBron James’ mind as he readied himself and his team for the next chapter in Lakers-Clippers Sunday at the new Intuit Dome in Inglewood.
“LeBron asked after the game what the situation with us arriving is, and I think that they got all that figured out,” said Austin Reaves, who scored a career-high 38 points Friday, with a bit of a shrug. “So I’ll just have to ask somebody.”
Assuming the Lakers figure out how to get into the building, they’ll be facing a Clippers team much better than the one that closed the Sports Arena in 1999 and finished with a, gulp, 9-41 record (the season not starting until February because of a labor issue).
This edition of the Clippers have been one of the best stories of the first half of the season, their swarming defense pairing masterfully with James Harden’s system-unto-himself offense and Norman Powell’s breakout season.
The Clippers are, in a lot of ways, built to challenge the Lakers’ weaknesses. Their physicality, their motor, their size and athleticism have all been things that have given the Lakers problems in losses to Detroit, Houston, Minnesota and Cleveland.
And the Lakers are still trying to solve some core issues — namely, how to stay connected and to script when things start to get rough.
“When our team has remained connected amidst adversity, we’ve won some games,” coach JJ Redick said before Friday’s game. “We’ve made some tough games, recently even, a Houston game, into one-possession games where we have a chance to tie or win. So I think that the process, in terms of embracing that, I would give that like a B for our team. Got a ways to go and frankly for me as a coach, I’m probably a B too.
“I can live with certain results as long as the competitive spirit is there. I feel good about that and you can build on that. Sometimes you can get, all of us can get a little deflated with results. That happens and that’s human nature.”
Friday against the Nets, the Lakers certainly didn’t build off the positive vibes following a second-half comeback victory over Miami on Wednesday. They needed heroics from LeBron James and Reaves in the fourth quarter to drag the team to a tight win against a struggling and undermanned Nets team.
Sunday against the Clippers, the Lakers should have Anthony Davis and Dorian Finney-Smith back in the lineup, a reminder that it’s hard to stack one game into the next.
“We were not the same team tonight as far as our lineup, as far as our whole complete group as we were in the Miami game,” James said Friday night. “So every game has its own factors and you just have to figure out how you can be the best that night. And obviously we were not the best tonight, but that’s what film is for, that’s what things we can clean up and be better for the next match.
“But now the Clippers is its own entity game and we have to understand that and go from there.”
And once they figure out where to park, they can get to work on that.
