{"id":893386,"date":"2026-10-24T20:12:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T20:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/893386\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T20:12:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T20:12:43","slug":"austin-reaves-walker-kessler-lead-lakers-past-the-clippers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/893386\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Reaves, Walker Kessler lead Lakers past the Clippers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

He turned the ball over 11 times and missed 13 of his 21 shots Friday night, leading Luka Doncic<\/a> to criticize his play, saying, \u201cMy game was terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, even with Doncic being sloppy with the basketball, with his shot failing him, with the Lakers<\/a> turning the ball over at an alarming rate, they still defeated the crosstown rival Clippers<\/a>, 125-117<\/a>, behind the play of Austin Reaves<\/a> and another stellar performance from center Walker Kessler<\/a> at Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n

As a team, the Lakers turned the ball over 21 times, nine in the fourth quarter when a 15-point lead was sliced to six points. Doncic\u2019s 11 miscues were over half of the Lakers\u2019 turnovers. His four in the fourth quarter didn\u2019t help matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have a lot of improvement,\u201d said Doncic, who had 23 points, seven assists and six rebounds. \u201cI like that you said both me and AR, and didn\u2019t just say me. \u2026 On all seriousness, I think we have a lot of room left to improve. Obviously my game was terrible, but we are 2-0. Not playing a great game by me and AR. We have a lot of room left, so it\u2019s very exciting news, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reaves led the Lakers in scoring with 28 points and nine assists. But he had six turnovers. It meant that the Lakers\u2019 guards combined for 17 turnovers.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We need to] stop giving them the ball,\u201d Reaves said about what the Lakers need to clean up. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty simple. \u2026 I think a lot of mine tonight were not smart. So, that\u2019s on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other end of the spectrum was Kessler, who played with force and purpose on both ends.<\/p>\n

He had 22 points on 10-for-14 shooting, eight rebounds, six blocks and a career-high-tying three steals.<\/p>\n

He became the fifth player in Lakers history to record at least 20 points, three steals and six blocks in a game, making Kessler the first to accomplish that feat since Anthony Davis in December 2024.<\/p>\n

Kessler has made 22 of his first 24 shots in two games as a Laker, his shooting percentage at an astounding 84.6%.<\/p>\n

He played only five games last season with the Jazz because of a torn labrum in his left shoulder.<\/p>\n

But now that he\u2019s back playing, his love for the game is higher than ever.<\/p>\n

\"Clippers <\/p>\n

Clippers forward Rui Hachimura, playing tight defense on Lakers guard Luka Doncic, returned to Crypto.com Arena where he played for parts of three seasons. He had 16 points, six rebounds and two steals.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, it\u2019s so much fun. It\u2019s so much fun,\u201d Kessler said. \u201cIt was definitely a tougher year for me. But God is faithful, and just to be here now, I\u2019m just so thankful. So thankful for this opportunity, so thankful to be healthy. Just very, very thankful.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Doncic turned the ball over late in the fourth quarter and Darius Garland<\/a>, who finished with 26 points, scored, the Lakers\u2019 once big lead of 112-97 in the fourth quarter was down to 119-113 with three minutes and 21 seconds left.<\/p>\n

But Kessler played big in the final few minutes. He made two free throws on the next Lakers\u2019 possession.<\/p>\n

Then after Reaves scored, Kessler blocked a shot, and for all intents and purposes, the victory was secured for the Lakers.<\/p>\n

They improved to 2-0 on the season and had forced the Clippers into 26 turnovers.<\/p>\n

They also made sure former Lakers teammate Rui Hachimura (16 points) didn\u2019t walk out of the arena with a victory.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

They also got back Collin Sexton<\/a>. He missed the Lakers\u2019 first regular-season game and all five preseason games because of a right leg soleus strain. Sexton played 16 minutes and had five points and three steals.<\/p>\n

Etc.<\/p>\n

Jake LaRavia<\/a> didn\u2019t play because of a sprained right ankle. LaRavia played in all 82 games last season for the first time in his career. His goal was to play in all 82 this season, but he\u2019s already missed his first game and might not be available to play until Sunday at Utah or Tuesday at home against the Portland Trail Blazers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked last week and mentioned that was one of his goals for the season. He had the same goal last year and he was able to do that,\u201d Redick said. \u201cPlay through some stuff at times last year. Wanted to play. We talked to him this morning before shootaround and I was going to try to give it a go and went to the treatment room and just, it\u2019s not there, but he\u2019s hopeful he could be back Sunday, if not Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He turned the ball over 11 times and missed 13 of his 21 shots Friday night, leading Luka…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[11654,155495,7630,198059,5460,6306,38913,355,13544,17589,33866,5190,175140,14220,99,374573,21146],"class_list":["post-893386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-austin-reaves","tag-clipper","tag-clippers","tag-first-quarter","tag-game","tag-lakers","tag-minute","tag-nba","tag-point","tag-rebound","tag-rui-hachimura","tag-season","tag-second-game","tag-shot","tag-sports","tag-two-handed-dunk","tag-walker-kessler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}