{"id":615328,"date":"2026-02-21T07:15:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T07:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/615328\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T07:15:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T07:15:14","slug":"luka-doncic-scores-38-and-the-lakers-hold-off-the-clippers-125-122-to-split-la-rivals-season-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/615328\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka Doncic scores 38 and the Lakers hold off the Clippers 125-122 to split LA rivals’ season series"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES — – Luka Doncic<\/a> had 38 points and 11 assists, Austin Reaves<\/a> added 29 points and the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> held off the Los Angeles Clippers down the stretch for a 125-122 victory Friday night.<\/p>\n

LeBron James<\/a> had 13 points and 11 assists for the Lakers in their return from the All-Star break. They blew a 15-point lead in the second half, but Doncic scored 12 points in the fourth quarter as the Lakers split the four-game season series with their crosstown rivals.<\/p>\n

Kawhi Leonard<\/a> scored 31 points before missing the final 5:10 with an apparent ankle injury for the Clippers (27-29), who fell just short of getting back to .500 in incredible fashion after their 6-21 start to the season.<\/p>\n

Bennedict Mathurin<\/a> had 26 points and seven rebounds in his second straight outstanding game for his new team before fouling out with 1:49 to play. The athletic guard acquired from Indiana for center Ivica Zubac<\/a> dropped a career-high-tying 38 against Denver<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Derrick Jones Jr<\/a>. scored on consecutive possessions to trim the Lakers’ lead to 123-120 with 46 seconds left. Nicolas Batum<\/a> then stole James’ pass in the final seconds, but the Frenchman missed a tying 3-point attempt with 4 seconds left.<\/p>\n

Doncic, James and Reaves were able to play together for only the 11th time in the Lakers’ 55 games this season, thanks to a rare moment of full health for the Lakers coming out of the break. They responded with a prolific offensive performance, even while James managed just two points in the second half.<\/p>\n

In Doncic’s return from a four-game absence followed by a five-minute All-Star Game<\/a> appearance due to a mildly strained hamstring, the Slovenian superstar scored 17 points with four 3-pointers in a dynamic first quarter for the Lakers, who made 16 of 17 shots in one stretch.<\/p>\n

Leonard, who had just one bucket in the first, answered with a 19-point second.<\/p>\n

The Clippers’ John Collins<\/a> was helped off the court with 18 seconds left in the first half after he bloodied his face on a hard landing while trying to catch a long pass at the rim.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Clippers: Host Orlando on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Lakers: Host Boston on Sunday.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/NBA<\/a>br\/]<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES — – Luka Doncic had 38 points and 11 assists, Austin Reaves added 29 points and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[81438,7,130,192,150,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-615328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-81438","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-espn","11":"tag-la-clippers","12":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116107393496253462","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}