LOS ANGELES (AP) – LeBron James had 35 points and 11 rebounds, Austin Reaves scored seven of his 15 points in overtime and the Los Angeles Lakers snapped an 11-game losing streak against the Los Angeles Clippers with a 130-125 victory yesterday.
D’Angelo Russell scored 27 points and Anthony Davis had 27 points and 10 rebounds for the short-handed Lakers, who beat their local rivals for the first time since July 2020 in the Florida bubble.
The 17-time NBA champion Lakers hadn’t beaten the Clippers on the Lakers’ home court at their shared arena since Christmas 2016, also losing 11 in a row.
“That was known,” Reaves said about the skids. “But at the same time, for me, and I (think) I speak for everybody, you want to win every game.”
With James Harden watching in street clothes on the Clippers’ bench, Kawhi Leonard scored 38 points in their second loss of the young season. Paul George scored 20 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, including eight points in the final minute, before fouling out 30 seconds into overtime.
“We played hard,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “We just didn’t play smart at times. (Poor) shot selection, and (we needed to) keep our turnovers down a little bit. I can’t fault the effort.”
Although the Lakers used just eight players due to five significant injury absences, they rallied from an early 19-point deficit before blowing an eight-point lead in the final 90 seconds of regulation.
James added 12 rebounds and seven assists in the 38-year-old’s latest standout game of his 21st NBA season.
