Lakers down yet another starter tonight against Clippers. Will this game be closer than expected? originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Tonight, the Los Angeles Lakers take on their little brother, who just moved out of their basement, in the Clippers.
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The Lakers are currently 19-7 and are aiming to stay in the hunt for the 2nd seed in the Western Conference, since it’s clear nobody is catching OKC for the 1st seed.
The Clippers, on the other hand, are 6-21 with no hopes of obtaining any playoff seed. They are also annoyingly interwoven with OKC this season as the Thunder own their first-round draft pick this offseason.
The ‘Battle of LA’ seems to very much be over as the Clippers organization is in shambles. Tonight, however, after the latest injury news, it might be a tightly contested game.
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Lakers add Rui Hachimura to injury report
The Lakers were going into this game tonight already down two starters in Austin Reaves and Deandre Ayton. Earlier today, though, thanks to Dave McMenamin, it was announced that they would also be without forward Rui Hachimura.
Hachimura will miss tonight’s game due to right groin soreness, but it doesn’t seem to be something serious that will derail his season by any means.
Despite his defensive inefficiencies, Hachimura has been great for Los Angeles this season. He’s averaging 13.3 PPG as a 4th option while shooting 53.5% from the field and an astounding 45.6% from three.
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Luckily, the Clippers are, as previously mentioned, terrible this season, so with the combination of Luka Dončić and LeBron James still available to play, the Lakers should still be favored tonight.
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