The main culprit behind their improve play is Kawhi Leonard, who originally was not named an All-Star despite looking like one of the best players in the league over the last two months. After struggling with lower body injuries, Leonard is finally back to form and he gave the Lakers issues by dropping 31 points on 11-of-19 shooting on Friday night.

Unfortunately, the Clippers star exited the fourth quarter at around five minutes due to ankle soreness. He did not return, leading to a purple and gold win.

Hopefully holding Leonard out was precautionary and it’s nothing of significance to keep him sidelined. James does not want to see that as he is a huge fan of the two-way star, sharing praise for Leonard after the game.

“Kawhi is awesome, man. He’s the best. He’s one of the best players ever,” James said. “I couldn’t care less about the injuries. Those are things you can’t control. You can only control the controllables and the things that he’s been controlling is how he comes back and how he perseveres every single time. That guy is awesome. I swear I have nothing but great things to say about Kawhi and the type of basketball that he’s been playing the last couple months. He is who he is for a reason. Not surprised by it.

“On another note, I was disappointed during the 2024 Olympic team when he wasn’t able to go with us. I was looking forward to teaming up with Kawhi too as well. A little disappointed about that when he had to deal with another injury. I was looking forward to spending some time with him. Listen, he’s great. He had 31 points in 12 minutes the other night. He’s awesome. I could speak about him all night.”

Since both James and Leonard arrived in Los Angeles, they have had some incredible battles against one another.

Leonard will be 35-years-old by the time next season starts and it will be intriguing to see how his games ages. The Clippers have roster decisions to make as well and perhaps their star’s time may be numbered, but one person who isn’t taking him for granted is James.

LeBron James explains how knee soreness began & desire to play through it

On the other side, LeBron James has had to manage his body as he maneuvers through his 23rd season. Leading up to Friday’s game, James was downgraded to questionable due to knee soreness and jeopardized the Lakers’ first chance of having a fully healthy squad.

Fortunately, he gave it a go and the four-time champion explained his through process behind playing through this particular ailment.

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This was really the first time the Lakers have been fully healthy all season as LeBron James was able to play despite dealing with some knee soreness. As a result, the Lakers were able come away with a 125-122 win over the Clippers. This was the final of four matchups between the two L.A. teams this season with each team winning their two home games.

Brook Lopez got the Clippers off to a hot start with their first seven points, although Austin Reaves responded with the first seven for the Lakers as well.

James then got going with a transition layup, fadeaway midrange and then a triple to give his team their first lead. Luka Doncic also started to pick it up, hitting a pair of deep 3-pointers and then finding Jaxson Hayes for a lob.

The Lakers had a strong close to the first quarter with Doncic hitting another pair of 3s and then Luke Kennard and Jake LaRavia both connecting as well to give them a 41-30 lead.

James took a hard elbow to the ribs early in the second quarter, which was upgraded to a Flagrant 1 foul. Before the Lakers could extend their lead though, Kawhi Leonard had six straight points to keep it within striking distance.

Leonard continued to do whatever he wanted offensively, but Doncic also returned to the game and picked up where he left off in the first quarter. The two superstars were going back and forth for a while, and the Lakers took a 72-65 lead into the halftime locker room.

The Lakers came out strong in the third quarter to quickly build their lead back up to 15, although that was met with a 20-3 Clippers run to regain the lead.

With the Lakers pressing a bit, Doncic hit another 3 to settle them back in, and then Kennard drove for a layup.

Bennedict Mathurin was in attack mode for the Clippers and finished a pair of three-point plays, but Reaves led a nice spurt to end the third quarter, giving the Lakers a 99-95 lead.

It wasn’t a great start to the fourth for the Lakers as they struggled to keep the Clippers off the free throw line. Lopez then hit a corner triple to take the lead back for his team.

After not taking a single shot all night, Marcus Smart drilled back-to-back jumpers to help out a struggling Lakers offense. Doncic then had a steal and a 3, getting back on track after a cold stretch.

Late in the fourth, Leonard was ruled out due to left ankle soreness and Mathurin fouled out. That took the wind out of the Clippers’ sails as the Lakers went on to close out the victory.

What’s next for the Lakers…

The Lakers will be back on the court on Sunday afternoon when they host the rival Boston Celtics at 3:30 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock.

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Lakers head coach JJ Redick revealed pregame that James woke up feeling sore, which is why he was downgraded to questionable. After going through his usual workout routine to test it out though, it was determined that James would be able to give it ago.

That means that the Lakers will have their fully healthy roster available for really the first time all season.

James will be worth monitoring throughout the night, however, as the hope is he makes it out of the game without any further issues.

As Los Angeles prepares for a potentially frantic race to the finish line, Redick needs to make sure every player is healthy down the stretch, so it makes sense to be cautious with LeBron and manage his workload if he is not feeling 100%.

In addition to James being available, Austin Reaves is off of a minutes restriction and Luka Doncic remains the league’s leading scorer as he returns from a four-game absence before the break.

After acquiring Doncic, the Lakers were granted a rare circumstance of having three unselfish on-ball creators. That means that one or two of those stars should be capable of holding it down while others miss time due to injury, but the real vision was for them all to share the court together, which they will do against the Clippers.

As a whole, the Lakers yet to see what it is like to have his Big 3 on the court together for an extended stretch. The hope coming out of the All-Star break was to have the Lakers hit the ground running and build on-court chemistry, and now they have an opportunity to do that.

Seeing how Los Angeles comes out of the break can be a sign of what’s to come, so the Lakers need to take care of business against a Clippers team on the second night of a back-to-back to start the second half on a high note.

Rui Hachimura: people won’t appreciate LeBron James until he retires

LeBron James is polarizing figure when it comes to his standing as an all-time great. Many have him as the greatest player ever and some do not want to entertain it.

Regardless, James remains a one-of-one talent and there will never be another player like him. Rui Hachimura shares that sentiment, believing people won’t appreciate the Lakers star until he retires and is out of the limelight.

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Additionally, Redick also revealed that guard Austin Reaves will be off his minutes restriction.

“Austin won’t have a minutes restriction, and as of 35-45 seconds ago, it looks like we’ll have everyone available tomorrow,” Redick said on Thursday.

The Doncic news shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise as it had previously been reported that he should be good to go after the All-Star break. His brief appearance in the All-Star Game itself only furthered that thinking and he said he felt good after playing five minutes on Sunday.

The Lakers were able to hold strong without their best player, going 2-2 in those games with only a blowout loss to the San Antonio Spurs in which Reaves, LeBron James, Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart all sat out as well, being a sore point.

Doncic is enjoying one of the best seasons of his career in his first full year with the Lakers as he leads the NBA at 32.8 points per game and ranks third in assists at 8.6. Doncic, James and Reaves have all played at an All-Star level this season, but have rarely been able to share the court together. Thankfully, that looks set to change coming out of the All-Star break.

Reaves returned from his calf injury a few weeks ago but had been on a minutes restriction of around 25 minutes, coming off the bench the last five games. Now that the restriction has been lifted, however, he will likely be back in the starting lineup.

This is the healthiest the Lakers have been all season long and now head coach JJ Redick will be able to get a good feel on what this team is capable of and be able to find the right lineups and rotations to get the best out of this group.

Whether the Lakers are true championship contenders has been a question hanging over this team all season long. They have maintained one of the better records in the Western Conference despite so many injury issues, but their performances in many of their losses has been concerning. But with Doncic and Reaves healthy and ready to go, the Lakers are set to show the rest of the league that they can compete with anybody and that starts Friday night.

Lakers’ Rui Hachimura opens up on feeling of trade deadline passing

Something else that should help the Lakers lock in is the passing of the trade deadline as players no longer have to worry about whether they will still be on the team. Rui Hachimura recently spoke on dealing with the rumors as a member of the Lakers and feels this team is now ready for anything that comes at them.

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They led 36-29 after one quarter and had a 64-47 advantage at the break. This Lakers team has been known to fold in situations like that, often letting the other team run away with it if they feel they don’t have any offensive or defensive momentum on a given night.

But on Thursday, the Lakers fought back a bit in the second half, making it a close game before ultimately losing by eight. It still goes as a loss for the Lakers and a win for the Clippers. However, it appeared as though Lue didn’t feel that way after the win, according to Grant Mona of The Sporting Tribune:

Ty Lue was frustrated walking into the press room.

When @TomerAzarly asked why, he said, “Because I wanted to blow them out.”

— Grant “Money” Mona (@Gmona48) January 23, 2026

There are several reasons why Lue might have wanted the Clippers to blow the Lakers out and be frustrated that they didn’t. The first is that the Clippers are on a roll, and giving up that kind of lead could show other teams how to take them down in the near future.

The second is that the Lakers and Clippers have developed a pretty intense rivalry over the past few years, and every game between them means more than it used to. The third, and most personal, is that the Lakers disrespected Lue during negotiations to become the team’s head coach.

All of these combine to Lue wanting the Clippers not to give the Lakers an inch when they play one another. Perhaps next time they face off, they won’t.

Luka Doncic reaches 4,000 assists in Lakers’ loss to Clippers

Lakers star Luka Doncic reached 4,000 assists for his career in the loss to the Clippers on Thursday night.

Doncic hit the mark with his fifth assist, finishing the evening with eight total. Luka had another strong performance against the Clippers, adding 32 points and 11 rebounds.

Luka reached this mark in his eighth season at age 26. LeBron James also reached the 4,000-assist mark in his age-26 eighth season.