The 2021 NBA season will begin with a showdown between the Clippers and the Lakers on Opening Night. And with the regular season will come a return of our full game coverage here at 213 Hoops!
Game Information
Where: Staples Center
When: 7 pm PT
How to Watch: TNT
Projected Starting Lineups
Clippers: Patrick Beverley, Nicolas Batum, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, Serge Ibaka
Lakers: Dennis Schroder, LeBron James, Kyle Kuzma, Anthony Davis, Marc Gasol
The Big Picture
Just a couple of months after their disappointing second-round flameout at the hands of the Nuggets in the bubble, the Clippers will look to make another run starting on Tuesday night at Staples Center. While the NBA’s Disney World restart was an incredible success, all things considered, it seemed to be a rather grueling psychological experience for the players. Paul George was one of a few players that was open about the mental struggles of being cooped up on the “campus” for weeks on end.
The upcoming season will look different for a variety of reasons. While some NBA ports of call are allowing a select number of fans to attend games from the jump, the Clippers will be among the many teams that will begin the campaign playing home games in front of empty arenas. Tuesday’s game against the Lakers is technically a road game, but there almost surely won’t be a tangible home-court advantage for either Staples Center tenant early on.
Obviously, this iteration of the Clippers looks a bit different from the one we last saw down in Orlando. Montrezl Harrell, JaMychal Green, Landry Shamet, and Doc Rivers are among those that have been shown the door. Serge Ibaka, Nicolas Batum, and the newly-enriched Luke Kennard are among the new faces looking to help lift LAC to the promised land under new boss Ty Lue.
The Clippers and Lakers met twice in the preseason in a couple of games with absolutely no bearing on how Tuesday’s clash will play out. These teams shared the spoils across four meetings last season, but we were ultimately robbed of the chance to see them go toe-to-toe in the playoffs. The Clips will be there to see the Lakers get their fancy rings before the game starts, which will hopefully give the road team a little extra reason to make an early-season statement.
Regardless of what happens in this one, it’s just the first of (hopefully) 72 regular-season games to enjoy before the playoffs begin again next summer. While getting a win would obviously be great, the main priorities here for the Clippers should be to get through this game healthy and show a bit more on-court cohesion than we saw during the forgettable 3-game preseason.
The Enemy
It’s hard to feel as though the Lakers didn’t improve this offseason. Dennis Schroder, Marc Gasol, Wes Matthews, and our old pal, Montrezl, all have their shortcomings, but none of them will be asked to do too much on a roster that already features LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Assuming LeBron doesn’t suffer a rapid age-related decline, the West will almost surely come through LA again. The AD-LeBron tandem is a matchup nightmare for anybody, and the addition of Gasol in particular makes their starting five a bit less clunky on paper. Frank Vogel can mix-and-match his stars with seemingly any assortment of corresponding pieces he wants and still presumably put a potent lineup on the floor at all times. Obviously, trying to defend a team like that is quite the challenge.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Lakers deploy Harrell, who will probably be out for blood in this game after the Clips essentially kicked him to the curb. We’ll see whether he can form a pick-and-roll partnership with Schroder similar to the one he enjoyed across the hall with Lou Williams.
Harrell’s defensive shortcomings likely won’t be as exposed with the Lakers, because LAL presumably won’t be leaning nearly as heavily on him to provide scoring down-the-stretch of games. The Clippers upgraded that position with the shot-blocking and floor-spacing presence of Serge Ibaka, who should prove to be a much better fit alongside the Clips’ high-scoring wing duo this season.
Odds and Ends
- The Clippers agreed to a four-year, $64 million deal with Kennard on Monday. About $56 million of that is actually guaranteed, with another $8 million or so available to Kennard via incentives. Kennard quietly averaged 15.8 points while shooting a shade under 40% from 3-point range last season with the Pistons, albeit in only 28 games. Health will be a key for the 24-year-old moving forward, as he hasn’t played more than 63 games in any of his first 3 years in the league.
- Marcus Morris is out for this game as he continues to deal with knee soreness. Morris missed the entirety of the preseason as a result of the issue after signing a four-year, $64M pact of his own earlier this offseason. Nicolas Batum is likely to start in his spot after doing so in the preseason.
- Dennis Schroder missed the Lakers’ last preseason game with an ankle sprain, but he is expected to suit up on Tuesday night. Schroder finished second behind Harrell and a spot in front of Lou Williams in last year’s Sixth Man voting after averaging nearly 19 points per game for the Thunder.
- The Clippers held LeBron to an average of just 21.3 points per game on dreadful 36.7% shooting from the field across their 4 meetings last season.
- The Lakers are listed as 3-point favorites in this one as of Tuesday morning.
That’s it for this preview of the Lakers-Clippers showdown on Opening Night. Give your comments on the game below!
