The last time the Los Angeles Clippers faced their city rivals on February 4, there was utter chaos everywhere around. Luka Doncic’s trade news had just dropped in and everyone in the NBA landscape was busy processing it. Amid that, LeBron James had confidently said something that he saw coming. After defeating the Clippers 122-97, LeBron was asked in a courtside interview about his initial thoughts on how the Lakers could look like with him and Luka being together.

“It’s going to be special. We’re going to attract a lot of eyes, obviously our ability to score, rebound, pass, it’s going to make it a lot easy on our teammates. That’s all we want to do, we want to create opportunities for our teammates, where they only have to catch, finish, catch, dunk,” James had said. Little less than a month later, Lakers’ rematch on Friday was the seventh time they paired up and boy, have they spelled out specialty already!

Be it the mighty full-court passes, or the flowy alley-oops, within this short span, the pair have shown such a connection that a commentator went up to the extent of comparing them to Joe Montana-Jerry Rice! On Friday, the Clippers fell to the overall brilliance of the duo. Both James and Luka are high-IQ players. With their watchfulness on the court, they took advantage by placing themselves in favorable spots. They were up against a Clippers squad that was the NBA’s second ranked defense on the season. But Luka and LeBron not only helped themselves, but made plays for youngsters like Dalton Knecht, who shot back-to-back three pointers with passes from James and Luka.

Meanwhile, the Clippers wanted to pressure Luka every time he was bringing the ball up and fortunately for them, he did struggle to start the game. However, in the fourth quarter, he spotted the mismatch. Ivica Zubac regularly switched to him. To the Slovenian guard, a center guarding him is the license to attack. Luka hit two consecutive threes to virtually put the game away for the Clippers. The birthday boy eventually finished the night with 31 points on 9-of-22 shooting and went 10 for 11 from the free-throw line. His partner in crime, James, notched 28 points on 12-for-21 shooting to go with 13 rebounds and three assists. One more point is there.

Luka’s defense has been spectacular ever since he arrived at the Lakers camp. If his shots are not falling, he has been channeling his talent to defense. Even on Friday night, he had 5 assists and 3 steals. Looking at all these, Clippers small forward Kawhi Leonard did not stop from giving them the credit they deserve. “Just them being smart enough to hunt the matchup, their shot-making obviously and their ability to pass (makes them tough to guard). They played well tonight.” Leonard, who had 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting but missed four of his six free throws, said about the new Lakers star duo. And guess what, Clippers’ coach Tyronn Lue did predict the success of the duo quite early.

There was a lot of anticipation about whether Luka and James fit together as a unit. Pundits and ex-players like Charles Barkley and Paul Pierce thought James and Doncic won’t work well together because they’re both ball-dominant players. Lue had smirked when he was asked about it. “They’re not right,” Lue said at a point when Luka had just arrived in LA.

“It’ll work. When you have LeBron James, who’s been the best player in the league for the last 15 years, and you have Luka — who’s a top-three, top-five player in the league — they’ll figure out how to make it work. LeBron can play with anybody. … I know JJ will do a good job of stacking those guys so they each have their own unit, kind of like we did with Kyrie and LeBron, and then in the fourth quarter they’ll close games together. They’ll figure it out. It’s not a tough problem to have, I’ll tell you that,” he had added. Look at them now.

The NBA world is buzzing that with Luka by his side, James is in a new career prime. Indeed. After all, the Akron Hammer is shooting 44% from deep since turning 40! But even with the two combining for 59 of the 106 points on Friday, the Clippers had every chance to steal the game. They just weren’t clinical.

Only the Clippers are to blame for their loss

Tyronn Lue spoke about the game with the reporters after the game. Having formerly coached LeBron James, Lue had some inside tricks to get the better of the King. They seemed to be working too. The Clippers were within two points with four minutes remaining in the game. However, they cut the rope that would help them take the lead.

The Clippers committed back-to-back turnovers. The Lakers capitalized on both of them. Such moments were prominent throughout the game for the Clippers. Ty Lue reinforced how ‘every possession matters’. He blamed such lapses in the critical moments of the game for their loss tonight. And he only had one message for the team. They have to be better.

“Just got to take care of the basketball you know every possession counts and we didn’t do a good job. I think it was a two-point game and we had three turnovers in a row which kind of helped them break the game open… Like I said 18 turnovers against this team, they’re going to get out in transition get easy points and that’s what we allowed them to do,” the Clippers head coach said after the game.

Those turnovers generated 25 points for the Los Angeles Lakers. Moreover, the Clippers also missed some key free throws, making just five of their eight in the fourth quarter. Had they avoided that, the Clippers had more going in their favor than against them. Both Rui Hachimura and Reaves were absent from the game. Without Hachimura in particular, the lack of size enabled Zubac to have a big night, which he did. However, the unforced errors towards the end hindered the Clippers from putting together any kind of run.

The loss now puts them in a precarious position. Their record is equal with the Golden State Warriors. So any wrong step could mean having to go through the Play-In to have a chance at making the postseason. So the urgency to solve these errors is high. And Ty Lue will hope this game underscores the importance of ball security and execution.