The Lakers (25-27) are in the second half a back-to-back following a victory over Portland last night. Tonight, they’ll take on the LA Clippers in the 88th version of the “Hallway Series.” Catch the action at 7:00 p.m. PT exclusively on TNT.
Here are three things to know before tonight’s contest:
MELO BEING MELO
In last night’s win over the Blazers, Carmelo Anthony was the major bright spot in a somewhat sloppy game from the Lakers overall. Melo came off the bench early after Stanley Johnson picked up back-to-back fouls three minutes into the game.
He knocked down a midrange shot to open his scoring and stayed hot the rest of the way. Anthony finished with 24 points on 8-of-12 from the field, knocked down five of his six three-point attempts, and even punctuated a lob from Russell Westbrook for an impressive alley-oop.
Carmelo explained to Mike Trudell in the postgame how he was able to get into a quick rhythm despite coming off the bench.
“Just playing basketball,” Anthony said. “Taking my shots that I work on every single day, being in the right position for my teammates to find me, and just trying to be effective as much as possible.”
Melo has now hit double-digit points in eight of the last ten games and has been a much better shooter inside Crypto.com Arena. While he is averaging about two points more at home, his shooting percentages are far better in the safe confines compared to the road. From the field, Melo is shooting 48.1% at home (38.2% on the road) and 45.2% from three (38.2% on the road).
TRIPLE THREAT
In the last meeting, the Clippers bested the Lakers by four points. With six minutes left in the game, Anthony Davis knocked down a free throw to cut the Lakers deficit by one.
With the score at 100-99, the Clippers went on to score 15 of their final 19 points from beyond the arc with Luke Kennard and Marcus Morris Sr. being the difference. The two combined for 13 points and knocked down three consecutive triples in the final minute to put the game out of reach.
Kennard has stayed consistent from three-point land all season. Not only is he leading the Clippers in three-point percentage, but he is also tied for third in the NBA in the same category (43.3).
As a team, the Clippers enter with the 10th-best shooting percentage from three (35.8) and allow the third-lowest three-point percentage to their opponents (33.1). The Lakers, meanwhile, have hit 34.9 percent of their threes (good for 18th in the league) and defensively are 11th in the NBA (34.3).
GOING BACK-TO-BACK
The Lake Show finds themselves in a back-to-back situation for the seventh time this season, and second time in a span of a week. In those six previous outings, the Lakers have been able to split five of the series but most recently lost both games of the back-to-back against Philadelphia and Charlotte on Jan. 27 and 28.
With a win over Portland less than 24 hours ago, the Lakers are looking to win both games of a back-to-back for the first time this season.
In the second half of the back-to-backs, the Lakers are averaging 111.8 points and are shooting 45.6 percent from the field. Russell Westbrook has been especially good, averaging 20.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 8.3 assists and has recorded a triple-double in two of those games.
Both the Clippers and Lakers are sitting in the eighth and ninth seeds, respectively, and are separated by half a game. What was expected to be a star-studded affair will be slightly less star powered, given the injuries to LeBron James (knee), Kawhi Leonard (knee), and Paul George (elbow).
The two teams are coming off their Grammy trips vying for wins to climb the Western Conference standings.