ANAHEIM — With the world’s greatest player watching from the sideline, the Lakers could not find much rhythm in their fourth exhibition.
LeBron James was given the night off and the Lakers missed the 15 minutes he has averaged this preseason, falling to the LA Clippers, 103-87.
With James and Lonzo Ball (knee) both out, the Lakers’ offense shot just 38.5 percent from the field, 3-of-18 on 3-pointers and committed 20 turnovers.
The game started all right, with the the Lakers tallying 16 assists on their first 19 baskets. Rajon Rondo did a nice job setting up teammates with 10 assists on the night, but went into halftime without a shot attempt.
“He knows how to manage a game,” coach Luke Walton said. “He’s been one of the best point guards in our league for years and one of the smartest. He knows what he’s doing. … He knows we have the confidence in him to shoot whenever he’s open. But it felt like he was just trying to get the team organized and get some of the guys going tonight.”
Kyle Kuzma — who started in James’ absence — led the Lakers with 15 points, but needed 13 shots to do so.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (10 points on 3-of-6 shooting) was the only Laker to attempt more than two shots and make at least half of them.
KCP returned to the starting lineup after coming off the bench for the past two games. His competition for starting shooting guard, Josh Hart, had eight points and six rebounds.
Both players were part of an unusual, all-guards lineup that pushed the Lakers’ “positionless basketball” mantra to new limits just before halftime.
Hart and KCP were joined by Rondo, Svi Mykhailiuk and Lance Stephenson. They played just 65 seconds together and were outscored 5-2. The hyper-small group gave up an offensive rebound and a transition bucket to big man Montrezl Harrell.
But Walton wanted to see more from that combination on the other end of the floor.
“I thought they did a nice job of scrapping defensively,” Walton said. “We kind of stood around too much offensively. Lineups like that can be dynamic, but we have to still penetrate into the paint, whether by cutting or passing or driving.”
Notes
The Lakers trailed by just one point at halftime. … JaVale McGee had eight points and nine rebounds. … The Clippers — who were without Danilo Gallinari, Patrick Beverley, Luc Mbah a Moute and Milos Teodosic —were led by Lou Williams’ 19 points. … A crowd of 18,040 sold out Honda Center.