Lakers' LeBron James remains winless against Ty Lue-led Clippers

Nick Metallinos

Lakers' LeBron James remains winless against Ty Lue-led Clippers image

The Lakers are currently in shambles and the Clippers have taken advantage of their rivals' situation, defeating them 132-111 at Crypto.com Arena to maintain coach Ty Lue's unbeaten record against the Lakers since taking over as head coach in Los Angeles. 

The Clippers were led by Reggie Jackson's 36 points, eight rebounds and nine assists. 

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The Lakers were blown out of the game in the third quarter when they were outscored 40-18 by a Clippers team playing without Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Norman Powell. 

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Coach Lue, who turned down the Lakers head coaching position in 2019 because they didn't offer him a longer-term contract continued his undefeated run against them since then. He is now 7-0 in games against the Lakers, completing his second consecutive season sweep on Thursday. 

Lue and James are familiar with each other from their Cleveland days, as they led the franchise to a championship from 3-1 down in the Finals in 2016.

Lue had coached 347 games heading into Thursday's game, and it appears that the Lakers have become his new favorite opposition. 

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In late February, following a win over the Lakers, Lue said his team didn't even prepare for that match-up. 

“We didn’t even prepare for them,"Lue stated. "We just basically worked on ourselves, our small-ball lineup, things we needed to get better at. It’s not about the Lakers, it’s about us going forward, getting better every game.”

The Lakers, meanwhile are in freefall.

Outside of the Jazz, they are just 1-15 in games vs. teams with a .500 record since Dec. 15, with their sole win coming at the expense of a Nets team that was minus Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. 

At 27-35, the Lakers hold just a one-game lead over the Pelicans for the West's 10th seed with exactly 20 games remaining.

Fortunately for the Lakers, none of those remaining games come against the Clippers.

Nick Metallinos

Nick Metallinos Photo

Nick has been working exclusively within the NBA world for over a decade. He hosted 46 episodes of Ball or Nothin' - a show screened on ESPN highlighting the social media aspects of the NBA. Nick has covered 3 NBA Finals, 5 NBA All-Star weekends, 8 NBA drafts, 5 Jordan Brand Classics plus dozens of playoff games and hundreds of regular season games. 
Nick spends his spare time trying to decide which sneakers best match his outfit.