Category: Basketball

When Luka Doncic sustained a left leg contusion and sat out the entire second half of a 103-88 loss to the Clippers at Intuit Dome on Saturday night, he became the latest in a growing list of ailing Lakers.

Doncic played 19 minutes in the first half but didn’t return for the third quarter. He had 12 points, five rebounds and two assists at the break. But Doncic struggled with his shooting, going four for 13 from the field and one for six from three-point range.

Doncic entered as the leading scorer in the NBA, averaging 35.2 points per game, and was third in assists, averaging 9.1. He had torched the Clippers for 43 points in a win last month.

“He told me at halftime he couldn’t go," Lakers coach JJ Redick said. "I don’t have any other information.”

Read more:Lakers' Marcus Smart fined $35,000 for making obscene gesture at official

Rui Hachimura missed his first start of the season because of a sore groin that is expected to keep him out three to five days. Austin Reaves (left calf), Deandre Ayton (left elbow) and Gabe Vincent (lower back tightness) also are out.

The Clippers also lost a key player Saturday when center Ivica Zubac sustained a left ankle injury in the first quarter. Zubac, who has played every game this season and leads the team in rebounds and blocks, logged just 11 minutes.

The Clippers (7-21) entered the game tied for the worst record in the Western Conference. They had lost five games in a row, eight straight at home and 10 of their last 11 overall.

They got off to a good start Saturday, building a 22-point lead over the Lakers (19-8), who cut their deficit to seven points in the fourth quarter before fading. It was the Lakers' season low in points.

“No matter what the circumstance is, it’s still next man up,” said LeBron James, who led the Lakers with 36 points. “We’re all professionals. We all got to stay ready. So, obviously very challenging circumstances for our ballclub tonight. But I think we played extremely hard. We followed our keys. We just came up short.”

Kawhi Leonard had 32 points and 12 rebounds for the Clippers and James Harden had 21 points and 10 assists.

Before the game, Redick wanted the Lakers to "just manage the game and play with the right spirit."

But the Lakers fell into a 17-point deficit in the first quarter and couldn't recover.

Redick said Hachimura sat out after he felt hip pain against Utah on Thursday night. Reaves was “continuing to push himself” to return soon, Redick said, and Ayton had “swelling” in his elbow but had a “brisk, intense individual workout.”

Redick said it’s possible Reaves and Ayton could return Tuesday at Phoenix.

After the game, Redick lauded how the Lakers put up a good fight despite their rash of injuries.

Jake LaRavia, who had 12 points and 11 rebounds and Nick Smith Jr, who had nine points off the bench, helped the Lakers stay within striking distance.

But the Lakers struggled to make shots. They shot 39% (34 for 88) from the field, 16% (six for 38) from three-point range and 61% (14 for 23) at the line.

“I thought all the guys, about 90% of them, they brought it,” Redick said. “And we defended at a high level. Made it tough on their stars. ... Yes, just highly, highly competitive group today and really proud of them.”

Sign up for our weekly newsletter on all things Lakers.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Why Draymond Green's second-quarter ejection woke up Warriors in win over Suns originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – It’s dubious, perhaps even silly, to conclude that the Warriors are a better team without Draymond Green.

But they surely were Saturday night – because Green’s absence left them no choice.

Trailing by 11 when Green was ejected early in the second quarter, the Warriors shook off their atrocious start, reacquainted themselves with defense in the middle quarters and then hung on for a 119-116 win over the Phoenix Suns before a sellout crowd (18,064) at Chase Center.

The victory was a tonic for the Warriors, snapping their three-game losing streak and alleviating some of the internal frustration, allowing the twitchiest activists within Dub Nation to get at least one night of peaceful sleep.

All because of their response to Green’s ejection with 10:39 left in the first half.

“Sometimes we take advantage of Draymond, what he does for us, and we count on him to clean up everything,” Gary Payton II said. “But once he’s out of there, we know we all got to come together and do it collectively. I think everybody felt that. And when we’re doing that as a unit, we can be pretty damn good.”

Green was assessed his first technical foul for shoving Suns guard Collin Gillespie in transition, and the second came moments later, when Draymond taunted lead official Pat Fraher and received the automatic ejection.

Draymond Green has been ejected from the game following this sequence 😳 pic.twitter.com/U5pE3NQDje

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) December 21, 2025

The Warriors were trailing 48-37 when Green was tossed. They had given up 44 points in the first quarter, with the Suns torching the nets, shooting 70.8 percent from the field, including 60 percent from beyond the arc.

“We were giving up straight line drives, straight bullet passes to the weak side, and they’re just teeing off on 3s, or they were just walking from the 3-point line to the basket getting a layup,” Stephen Curry said.

Phoenix forward Dillon Brooks scored 12 points, shooting 5-of-5 from the field in the first quarter, and All-Star guard Devin Booker put in another 11. The Warriors gave up five dunks in the first 12 minutes. Their Golden defense was asleep.

The sight of Draymond stalking off the floor for the rest of the evening got the Warriors’ attention.

“I think it woke us up,” Curry said. “Because we knew without him, we’re going to have to play even tougher, dig deeper down the rotation. I think everybody was kind of on alert and trying to have his back.”

The Warriors turned ferocious, limiting the Suns to 31.8-percent shooting from the field, including 17.6 percent from deep in the second and third quarters. Golden State took a six-point (93-87) lead into the fourth quarter and pushed to 11 before Phoenix staged a comeback, cutting the margin to one in the final seconds before Curry dropped in a reverse layup with 5.7 seconds remaining to secure the win.

“The game settled down for us after the first quarter,” coach Steve Kerr said. “(The Suns) came out lights out, shooting. We made a few mistakes, and then we buckled down defensively. The middle quarters were fantastic defense. They broke free a little bit at the end.”

The result was the Warriors crashing through a barrier that seemed to be getting sturdier each game. After three consecutive clutch-game losses, they found success. They have played 16 clutch games and now are 6-10.

But watching the Suns go on an 11-5 run inside the final two minutes frayed a few nerves inside Chase and did not go unnoticed by Kerr.

“We know we have to execute better down the stretch,” the coach said. “We didn’t execute well, especially defensively. We gave up some open looks, and the 3-point play by (Booker) with about a minute to go . . . we can’t have had the full-court press on and let him move freely and go right to the rim. So, we have a lot to look at and learn from.”

Draymond did a lot of looking on Saturday. And he learned something, too. That his teammates did a splendid job covering for him. They applied defense because he could not, and it won the game.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast