On Tues, Nov 25, the Los Angeles Lakers hosted their former hallway rivals in the Los Angeles Clippers in an NBA Cup Group Play game at Crypto.com Arena. In the West Group B, the Lakers and Clippers were both 2-0 and whoever won this game was likely to win the group and secure a spot in the NBA Cup Knockout Round that will begin during the second week of December. The Lakers were playing without DeAndre Ayton, who suffered a left knee contusion on Sun, Nov 23 against the Utah Jazz. Jaxson Hayes would start in Ayton’s place while the rest of the roster was healthy and available. LeBron James was playing in his third game of the season and looked to continue contributing in whatever way he could. Coming off a tight two-point win in Utah, the Purple & Gold were seeking their fifth straight win, which would give them their second winning streak of at least five games so far in this 2025-26 NBA season. They would have to deal with a Clippers squad with a recently-reactivated Kawhi Leonard and James Harden, who set the franchise’s single-game scoring record with 55 points in a game on Sat, Nov 22 against the Charlotte Hornets. The Clips were missing a couple of key players as guard Bradley Beal was done for the season with a left hip injury, Bogdan Bogdanovic had a hip injury keeping him sidelined and Derrick Jones Jr was dealing with a sprained MCL. So, the Lakers were facing an unhealthy 5-12 Clippers squad in a high-stakes game in their third game of the third edition of the NBA Cup that they won the first edition of when it was called the In-Season Tournament.

The game started with a scoring barrage from none other than Luka Doncic, who scored 24 points in the first quarter with five three-pointers made. The Clippers countered this with good shooting of their own from the paint, mid-range and behind the arc. Harden was the leading scorer throughout the night, but had some help from his teammates in Leonard, John Collins, Ivica Zubac and Kobe Brown. With Luka out to start the second quarter, LeBron and Austin Reaves picked up the slack as they scored and assisted with some incredible passing. Doncic only had five points in the second frame, but LeBron scored some points along with other contributors to lead the way. The Lakers held a tight 69-66 lead at halftime in a high-scoring first half. In spite of all the good stuff done on the offensive end, the defensive effort for the Purple & Gold was less efficient as the Clippers continued their good shooting from the floor. The second half would definitely provide some answers as to who would take over this game.

To start the third quarter, the Lakers bolted ahead to a double-digit lead early on, but the Clips immediately answered with an 11-0 run led by Harden and Zubac to retake the lead. It was a tug-of-war for the rest of the quarter as there were three coach’s challenges(two by Tyronn Lue, one by J.J Redick) and all of them were successful. The Lakers retook the lead and added some points onto it as they led by five at the end of the third quarter. In the fourth, the Lakers started really padding their lead as James and Reaves once again did their part with Doncic on the bench. The Lakers kept their lead at double-digits with Luka back in the game and with a few minutes left, a dramatic altercation happened on the floor.

After Zubac made a basket to get the deficit down to 10 points for the Clippers, Doncic got up and confronted Kris Dunn, who shoved the ball in Doncic’s chest. Luka simply smiled and giggled, with Dunn getting pushed from behind by Jaxson Hayes, who was standing up for his teammate. Dunn took exception to the push and retaliated with an open-hand slap that connected with Hayes’ face. Both teams had to be separated by the officiating crew and security guards, with a replay review taking place on the fracas to determine if any technical fouls or ejections should occur. After the review, head referee James Williams announced that Dunn would receive two technical fouls and was ejected from the game. Hayes also received a tech, which canceled out one of Dunn’s technical fouls when it came to shooting free throws. So, after that incident the Lakers breezed to victory and had some of their bench players come in. That included Bronny James, Adou Thiero and the recently-signed to the active roster Drew Timme, who was famous for playing a five-year collegiate career at Gonzaga University. Timme was on the South Bay Lakers and got to practice with LeBron while he was rehabbing to return from his sciatica injury. Timme got a late basket on an assist from Bronny to push the Lakers lead up to 18(point differential matters more as a potential tiebreaker in the NBA Cup group standings, so the scrubs had to play hard till the buzzer sounded). The Lakers won the game by a final of 135-118 in clinching West Group B and securing a spot in the NBA Cup quarterfinals. Whether they play a home game or on the road for that matchup will be determined by their final point differential and overall record in group play games, with one more on tap on Black Friday against the Dallas Mavericks.

Luka had another incredible performance as he scored 43 points, snagged nine rebounds and dished out 13 assists in nearly having a triple-double. Reaves was the second-leading scorer as he put down 31 points and had 9 rebounds(8 of them in the first half). LeBron scored 25 and had six rebounds and six assists to top another efficient game since his season debut. The only other player in double-digits for the Purple & Gold was Rui Hachimura as he scored 13 points. The Big 3 of Luka, LeBron and Reaves all combined to score 99 points in an impressive showing against the Clippers, who will have to find another way into the knockout stage of the NBA Cup. Harden scored 29 points with 9 assists, Leonard and Dunn each had 19 points, and the other two Clipper starters in Collins and Zubac scored double-digits as well. Now with a 13-4 record and their second five-game winning streak, the Lakers continue to go up in the Western conference standings early on in this season and will welcome the rookie forward sensation Cooper Flagg into their arena on Fri, Nov 28. The first Luka-Flagg matchup shall feature fewer players than usual as Dallas has a load of unavailable players due to injury. Either way, it should still be a good matchup as the Purple & Gold seek to extend this winning streak to six and to remain perfect in NBA Cup play so far in this iteration of the tournament.