6 weeks left in season Lakers 6th (best case 3rd, worst case 9th) Clippers 9th (best case 7th, worst case 11th)

Asked Doug Christie about his impressions of the Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Austin Reaves lineup combo that he saw for the first time this season (in the previous three Kings-Lakers games, at least one of Doncic, James, or Reaves was out of the lineup)

Asked Nique Clifford on receiving leadership from a group of former All-Stars in DeMar DeRozan, Russell Westbrook, Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine even amongst what has been a difficult team season for the Sacramento Kings

For the first time all season the Los Angeles Lakers have won back-to-back games by more than 20 points each Final: Kings 104, Los Angeles 128 Luka Doncic: 28 points, 10/16 FGs, 5 rebounds, 9 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 4/8 3s, 4/7 FTs in 29:13 And that ends Week 19 in the NBA

Clippers snap 3-game losing streak, beat Pelicans 137-117 Outscored Pelicans 36-9 off turnovers Only player over 30 minutes was Jordan Miller (32:13) Golden State has ruled Curry, Curry, Butler, Porzingis, Richard out for Monday vs Clippers. Gary Payton II is questionable

Black Beatles

Clippers outscoring Pelicans 29-9 off turnovers through three quarters And Brook Lopez decided to take LA’s 3-point drought problem into his own hands

First half 3-point shooting in Los Angeles Entire Sacramento Kings team: 2/14 Luka Doncic by himself: 3/6

Nice of the Clippers to score like they practiced, but that was an embarrassing half defensively LA leads 76-70 in what was a pretty unserious first half for the Clippers, considering Pelicans had a game in another time zone yesterday Jordan Miller: 13 points, 3 AST off bench

Kawhi definitely is playing like a fellow who had a week off lol

Both teams in bonus last 5:13 of 1st half in Pelicans-Clippers

Herbert Jones remains in foul trouble

Pelicans end first quarter on a Jeremiah Fears fueled 9-4 run LA still leads 43-32. The Clippers offense looks like a blend of practice and Pelican jet lag. Long way to go. John Collins: 8 points, 3/4 FGs, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, 2/2 FTs Clippers already have 22-12 paint adv.

Herbert Jones is in foul trouble

Pelicans bonus last 5:26 of 1st quarter

Kawhi Leonard was the last Clippers starter to score He put Bryce McGowens in a backpack, then dunked all over Derik Queen. Unfair circumstances. Kawhi now has more points as a Clipper than Chris Paul. Timeout Pelicans LA up 28-12 with 4:28 left in 1st quarter

LAC in bonus last 4:49 of first quarter

John Collins is in foul trouble

This is my gift to @sabreenajm.bsky.social every year lol

And now the other bounce bro Derrick Jones Jr. gets a dunk to put LA up 18-8 and force a Pelicans timeout with 6:47 left in 1st quarter

John Collins already has 3 dunks in 4 minutes

Updated 🗞️ @theathletic.com on Darius Garland return to action and debut with the LA Clippers www.nytimes.com/athletic/707...

I'm not saying this is the last time, but it's cool to see DeAndre Jordan get one more start in the Clippers arena

Sacramento Kings 3-point percentage of tonight's starters at Los Angeles for this season DeMar DeRozan (33.3%) Precious Achiuwa (32.8%) Maxime Raynaud (25%) Nique Clifford (31.8%) Russell Westbrook (33.8%)

LeBron James will play tonight vs Kings

Just now seeing that 4th quarter score in Chicago. Bucks wyd 😳

Pelicans starting Dejounte Murray/Herbert Jones/Saddiq Bey/Trey Murphy III/DeAndre Jordan tonight at LA

Zion Williamson's streak of consecutive games played ends at 35. He will not play tonight at LA

James Borrego was on the San Antonio Spurs staff in Kawhi Leonard's last three seasons there He had a lot to share when I asked him about Leonard's ascent to All-NBA status 10 years ago and Leonard's career-best volume now in 2026 "He's just stacked years on top of that"

There are bad teams tanking The New Orleans Pelicans aren't one of them Asked Tyronn Lue if a team playing well/hard despite a bad record this late in season makes it easier to focus on them instead of looking at the record T. Lue: "Look at our record..."

if it weren't rivalry day at Galen, I'd be at Intuit in a heartbeat

Clippers will start Dunn/Jones/Leonard/Collins/Lopez tonight vs Pelicans. I do wonder if Clippers would start Garland tomorrow or if they bring Garland off the bench as part of his minute restriction to go with Mathurin and Yanic Konan the Barbarian

Darius Garland is officially debuting with LA Clippers Monday at Golden State

Couple of reasons to be here (cc @sabreenajm.bsky.social)

3-point shooting, first half at Denver Bones Hyland 3/3 Entire Nuggets team 3/14 Bones is outscoring entire Denver bench 15-14 by himself in only 7:37

Some matchup rankings headed into Kings at Los Angeles for Sunday night Lakers won't have to worry about the Kings shooting 3s to the degree that the Suns or Warriors do. It's all about DeMar DeRozan midrange. Makes all sense in world to get LeBron a game off / let Reaves cook

Some matchup rankings headed into Pelicans at LA for Sunday night While the Pelicans have been 3-point deficient most of the season, no team was more 3-point deficient in February than the Clippers. It took a Kawhi Leonard buzzer beater for Clippers to survive Pelicans on 🎃

Some of you may note that the 250-minute number is significant to some when it comes to when sample sizes move from "small" to "signficant"

The Lakers smacked the Warriors so badly that the Luka Doncic/LeBron James/Austin Reaves lineup combo had their best +/- of the season, and there was room left over for the other Lakers lineups to outplay Warriors as well. Luka/Bron/AR lineups now +3 in 255 minutes in 2025-26✍️🏾

Trey Murphy III (shoulder) hasn't played since the All-Star break That changes TONIGHT as Murphy is available tonight at LA Dejounte Murray will also be available, as expected Zion Williamson (ankle) is questionable and has played in every Pelicans game since December 14.

Pelicans win at Utah Back-to-back edible watch for Sunday at LA: - Saddiq Bey (39:16) - Herbert Jones (36:00) - Jeremiah Fears (34:29) - Bryce McGowens (33:20) - Zion Williamson (11:04, DNP 2nd half) - Dejounte Murray (inactive)

Connor Storrie / Mumford & Sons

Lakers and Warriors scored the same amount of points from the field inside the 2-point line But Lakers made 7 more 3s and 7 more FTs

Second-largest win of season for Lakers... technically first win of 20+ points vs a team with a current winning record 129-101 at Golden State No back-to-back edible watch due to the blowout. Nobody played more than Luka Doncic's 29:15

Largest Lakers lead through 3 quarters all season 1st quarter Reaves 2nd quarter LeBron 3rd quarter Luka They gonna let Dalton Knecht get 4th quarter buckets lol

First half at Golden State LeBron James: 20 points, 7/10 FGs, 4/4 3s, 2/3 FTs Entire Warriors starting lineup: 22 points, 8/28 FGs, 4/18 3s, 2/2 FTs

The Warriors are combining a lack of talent with a lack of athleticism and a surplus of mistakes

Both Lakers and Warriors made 7/13 FGs each in paint in first quarter But Warriors failed to attempt a free throw (because they have no buckets out there) And Lakers made 5/9 3s while Golden State missed 11 of 13 3s Neither team attempted a midrange field goal

The Warriors have absolutely no buckets, no size, and no straps out there They have made one shot outside the paint and the rest of their points have come from the Lakers being sleep

this is why we do what we do 🕯️ ICYMI @theathletic.com 👇🏾