Lakers Beat the Clippers 103-87 Without Luka Doncic, Behind Quentin Grimes' 23 and Collin Sexton's 21
No Doncic, no problem — at least for one night in Inglewood. Quentin Grimes scored 23 points and Collin Sexton 21 as the Lakers, missing their star to back tightness, beat the Clippers 103-87 for the second time in four games.
The Los Angeles Lakers walked into the Intuit Dome without Luka Doncic and walked out with a 16-point win. The Lakers beat the Clippers 103-87 on Wednesday night in Inglewood, their second victory over their city rivals in the season's first four games, Reuters reported.
Doncic was held out with back tightness on the second night of a back-to-back, and the Lakers were also without Ziaire Williams, who has a foot injury. The depth answered anyway: Quentin Grimes led the Lakers with 23 points, Collin Sexton added 21, Austin Reaves scored 16 and Matisse Thybulle 15, and Walker Kessler contributed 11 points and nine rebounds in his fifth game with the team. A 31-16 second quarter built the cushion, and the Lakers (4-1) rebounded from their first loss of the season.
The Clippers (1-3) got a career-high 21 points from rookie Keaton Wagler and 15 from Derrick Jones Jr., but Darius Garland managed only 14 points on 4-of-12 shooting, and the home team's offense never recovered from that second quarter.
For the Lakers, the takeaway is structural: a road win over a rival, by double digits, on a night their best player sat. For the Clippers, three losses in four games — two of them to the Lakers — is an early hole, whatever the calendar says about October.
