Clippers, striving to stay in playoff position, fall short against Lakers

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Clippers center Ivica Zubac dunks over Lakers center Trey Jemison III during the game Friday night at Crypto.com Arena. Zubac finished with 27 points. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The goal for the Clippers is to stay among the top six teams in the competitive Western Conference and avoid the NBA’s play-in tournament.

How the Clippers handle the difficult road ahead will determine their fate.

They have 23 regular-season games remaining to make the playoffs a reality.

They were unable to take a step forward Friday night, their turnovers and poor three-point shooting dooming them in a 106-102 loss to the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena.

Yet, by the end of the night, the Clippers still held the sixth spot in the West, even though they had an identical 32-27 record as the surging Golden State Warriors.

And the schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Clippers.

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They will face the Lakers again on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena.

The Clippers then travel to Phoenix for a game on Tuesday before coming home to Intuit Dome for games against Detroit, New York and Sacramento.

All of these pressure-packed games are against teams fighting for seeding in the NBA standings.

“With the schedule, it’s more challenging. But we’re up for the challenge,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “So, it’s the tough part of our schedule. We play a lot of good teams, a lot of games in this last month and a half. We’re slowly starting to get healthy and the guys we acquired, we just got to continue to get them up to speed. But I like where we’re at and it’s in our hands. So, we’re in a good spot, we’re in a good place and now we just got to start building off of it.”

Those new guys are Ben Simmons and Bogdan Bogdanovic.

But it’s guys like Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Norman Powell and Ivica Zubac that the Clippers will keep leaning on for their chances.

Zubac was a force for the Clippers against the Lakers, producing a double-double with 27 points on 13-for-15 shooting from the field and 16 rebounds.

Clippers guard James Harden drives past Lakers guard Luka…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/clippers-striving-stay-playoff-position-073209651.html

Author : LA Times

Publish date : 2025-03-01 07:32:00

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