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Clippers bring plenty of motivation into game against Lakers

April 4, 2023

PLAYA VISTA — Motivation comes in different forms and from different places. For Russell Westbrook and Ivica Zubac, two former Lakers, seeing purple and gold jerseys across the court could be just the impetus the Clippers need to get back to winning.

The Clippers will be looking for their 11th consecutive victory against the Lakers on Wednesday night when the hallway partners meet up in a crucial late-season game at Crypto.com Arena. One team (the Clippers) will be looking to take another step toward avoiding the play-in tournament, while the other (the Lakers) will be looking to move into the top six in the Western Conference standings and potentially do the same. A half-game separates the Clippers (41-38), who were tied with the Golden State Warriors (41-38) before Tuesday’s games, and the seventh-place Lakers (40-38) with less than a week left in the regular season.

“We all know what our goal is for that game. We need a win,” Zubac said. “We’re going to do whatever, everything we can to get a win. It’s all about the team. It’s not about individuals’ performances, whoever and what you can get individually. It’s all about team performance.”

Still, there were the trades.

Zubac played two seasons with the Lakers before being traded to the Clippers in 2019, while Westbrook joined the Clippers in February after the Lakers traded him to Utah, which waived him, opening the door for him to sign with the other Los Angeles team following 18 tumultuous months as a Laker.

Zubac said both he and Westbrook are simply looking for a victory, not retaliation. The Clippers center has faced the Lakers several times over the past four seasons but he still gets pumped up when the game shows up on the calendar.

“There’s for sure extra motivation,” Zubac said. “I’m playing (against) the team that traded me. Russ is playing (against) the team that traded him. There’s always motivation against the team that got rid of you, so you want to prove them wrong.

“But, at this point in our careers, I mean, Russ is what, 15 years in? He wants to win. I want to win. The whole team wants to win. We’re all just trying to get a win.”

The Clippers can assure themselves of a top-six finish if they can win their three remaining games without injured All-Star wing Paul George (knee), which would create a slightly less stressful path in their pursuit of a championship. But first, they need to get past the surging Lakers, who had won six of their past seven games going into their game at Utah on Tuesday night.

Still, the Clippers have beaten the Lakers in their past 10 meetings (and 31 of 38 since October 2013). Yet, none of those games were perhaps as important as this one.

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“Yeah, I mean this is probably the first meaningful game we’ve played against them,” Coach Tyronn Lue said. “We play in the same city and things like that, but this game has a lot of significance and the biggest thing for me is understanding what we need to do on both sides of the basketball.”

The Clippers are coming off back-to-back losses to the Memphis Grizzlies and the New Orleans Pelicans and are in danger of slipping out of playoff contention. Lue said the team’s motivation must be on the court, not the other bench.

“We got to be good at not turning over the basketball. We’ve got to make sure we take care of the basketball, not let them get out in transition, get easy baskets,” Lue said. “The second thing is just rebounding the basketball. The difference is they have more shooting, so it will be harder to double-team Anthony Davis now like we used to in the past.

“Those things can change and those things can be different but overall (Coach Darvin) Ham has done a great job just keeping his team afloat until they got healthy and made some good trades and now they’re playing good basketball.”

Orange County Register

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Clippers bring plenty of motivation into game against Lakers

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