After spending the first two years of his career switching between roles as a scorer and as a distributor, Jordan Clarkson had his best game of this season by blending both aspects of his game.
The Lakers’ sixth man tied his career-high with 30 points while finding time to tally eight assists and six rebounds. He also knocked down a pair of clutch shots in the waning minutes, but it wasn’t quite enough to prevent a 118-116 loss to Philadelphia.
“Tonight he put it all together, obviously,” head coach Luke Walton said. “He was really good. And the few times that he had open guys and tried to force a shot, he instantly looked over at the bench (and) acknowledged that was his mistake. So that’s even great to see him aware of the fact of what we’re talking about when it comes to scoring and playmaking.”
Clarkson gave the Lakers (20-46) a one-point lead with two minutes left by spinning through the paint for a layup. When Dario Saric — who led the 76ers with 29 points, seven rebounds and five assists — answered on the other end, Clarkson went right back at it.
The 24-year-old showed off some nifty footwork by hitting a turnaround jumper to take the one-point advantage back with 72 seconds remaining.
But T.J. McConnell — who had only attempted one shot at that point — got his fallaway jumper to go, giving Philadelphia (24-42) the lead for good.
That final minute spoiled one of the best games of Clarkson’s career. His eight assists were the most since his rookie season in 2014, and he was aggressive with his own shot, going 10-of-11 at the free throw line.
“I’m trying to find that balance again,” Clarkson said. “I’ve been thrown into different roles each and every year. Coming off the bench, Coach (Walton) has me in a role where I’m able to have the ball and do some things with it and try to get my teammates some shots and try to make plays.”
Walton liked having Clarkson control the ball for the second unit, which was part of the reason he started D-League call-up David Nwaba (six points) at shooting guard in place of Nick Young, who was available but didn’t play because Walton wants to give more opportunities to his young players.
Ivica Zubac was also inserted to the starting lineup and made an immediate impact, swatting a career-high four blocks in the game’s first five minutes.
The Lakers and Sixers went back and forth from there, entering halftime tied at 65. Walton said that his locker-room message for the team was: “We should be winning this game.”
But Philadelphia was the one that came out strong in the third quarter, leading by as many as 11 points while Los Angeles shot just 5-of-19 in the period after hitting nearly 60 percent in the opening half.
Fortunately for the purple and gold, Clarkson was there in the fourth, making all four of his shots toward 10 points. But — even with recent top-three picks Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons out due to injuries — the Sixers still prevailed.
Both teams had plenty of firepower, as the Lakers made half of their attempts while Philadelphia shot 51.9 percent.
Led by Julius Randle (21 points, 12 rebounds), the Lakers were particularly successful down low, scoring 66 points in the paint. However, they couldn’t hit from outside, going 4-of-20 from 3-point range.
In the meantime, Saric’s efforts were supplemented by 23 points from Jahlil Okafor and 18 from Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot.
Notes
Zubac had 10 points, six rebounds and four blocks. … Larry Nance Jr. had four steals and a 3-pointer that cut L.A.’s deficit to one in the final seconds. … D’Angelo Russell shot just 5-of-17 from the field. … Staples Center was sold out by a crowd of 18,997.