Morris, Clippers cruise past short-handed Lakers 104-86
LOS ANGELES — Marcus Morris scored 22 points and the Los Angeles Clippers dominated the short-handed Lakers in a 104-86 victory on Sunday to end a two-game skid.
Kawhi Leonard had 19 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, and Paul George added 16 points for the Clippers.
“We set the tone early defensively, we were physical and got into bodies,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said.
The Lakers trailed the entire game in which they were again without injured All-Star duo LeBron James and Anthony Davis, as well as Andre Drummond and Wesley Matthews. They’ve dropped six of nine.
Montrezl Harrell led the Lakers with 19 points against his old team. Marc Gasol was the only starter in double figures with 11 points.
Kyle Kuzma’s shooting typified the Lakers’ offensive woes. He was held to six points as one of four starters who combined to shoot 12 of 41.
“We got to play the right way on the offensive end,” Kuzma said. “Defensively, we’ll be all right. Offensively, we got to find ways to play together. Can’t win games scoring in the 80s and 90s. Got to find ways to incorporate everyone.”
The Clippers built a doubledigit lead midway through the second that the Lakers never reduced to single digits the rest of the way.
“Credit the Clippers’ defense,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. “They got up into us and we didn’t handle their pressure at all and we had a tough shooting night. We got to play through their pressure and physicality better than we did.”