Struggling Lakers take on the Clippers looking to right the ship

LOS ANGELES — It’d be difficult to imagine the Lakers and Clippers in more different places than they are entering Sunday, their second matchup of the season after the Lakers’ 130-125 victory over the Clippers on Nov. 1.

The Lakers (17-19) have struggled the last four weeks, losing 10 of their last 13 games, including four consecutive defeats – the three most recent losses being by double digits – after Friday’s 127-113 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies at Crypto.com Arena.

They’re still searching for the right formula despite 44% of the regular season being behind them. The internal optimism that was present just a month ago when they were 14-9 seems to have diminished – at least externally.

“I don’t know,” LeBron James responded when asked whether the cracks from this skid were showing during their 12-4 run (including the In-Season Tournament championship win) from Nov. 10-Dec. 9. “I’m not thinking too far in the past, to be honest.

“I mean, we just suck right now.”

Meanwhile, the Clippers (22-12) are rolling and haven’t shown any signs of slowing down. They’ve won five consecutive games and 14 of their last 16.

They’re healthy. They’re seemingly connected. And have found their footing after the early-season trade for James Harden in a way the Lakers haven’t consistently been in a while.

“They are just ready to be done with this, done with this slide,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said after Friday’s loss. “Obviously no one wants to lose. It’s disappointing to lose. But we can’t make the mistake of getting discouraged.

“Everybody is going to nit-pick at me, the staff, players, the organization, whatever. We got to block out all the noise. Don’t pay attention to it. Focus on how we can be better. Whatever the mistakes are, whatever went wrong, look at it, analyze it and try to correct it, and that’s it. You have to be solution-based. You have to be numb to whatever is going on outside. If they are not the Lakers, then don’t pay attention to it. Just lock in on us and try to see how we can be the best version of ourselves, through our work.”

For the Lakers to show they’re going to start righting the ship during this homestand, they’ll have to find solutions to how opponents are burying 3-pointers at a high clip against them.

Lakers opponents have shot 41.8% from beyond the arc during this 13-game skid – the third-worst mark in the league during this stretch.

Some of these woes are the Lakers being misfortunate and opponents knocking down 3s despite good defense. But it’s also a product of how the Lakers defend.

They lead the league in “wide-open” 3-pointers allowed – when a defender isn’t within six feet of the shooter – at 22.8, with opponents knocking down those shots at a 42% clip (the league’s second-worst mark). Opponents have been even more potent during the Lakers’ skid, making nearly half (47.2%) of the 23.5 “wide-open” 3s they’ve allowed per game during this 3-10 stretch.

The Lakers prioritize protecting the paint and have shown a willingness to sag off opponents who don’t shoot the 3-ball at a high level. When it works, the strategy looks good. But when it doesn’t, nights like when the Grizzlies made a season-high 23 3s happen.

“It seems to happen a lot versus us, where the percentages go the other way,” James said. “We had our game plan and how we wanted to execute that, and I thought we did that as well as we could. And they made us pay.”

And the Clippers, who have the league’s best 3-point percentage since the beginning of December at 40.8%, are just as equipped as any team to make the Lakers pay.

“I mean, everything,” Austin Reaves responded when asked what the Lakers could do to defend 3-pointers better. “Can try to do anything at this point. We just have to, like I said, do better. That’s really it.”

TWO-WAY SWAP

The Lakers will reportedly sign Westchester Knicks wing Dylan Windler to a two-way contract, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Dave McMenamin reported Saturday morning.

To make room for Windler, the Lakers will waive two-way player Alex Fudge so Windler can join Colin Castleton and D’Moi Hodge as the team’s three two-way players.

The 6-foot-7 Windler, who was a first-round draft selection (26th pick) for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2019, has made 37.8% of his 3-pointers across 26 G League games and 32.5% of his 3s in 87 NBA games.

CLIPPERS AT LAKERS

When: 6:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Crypto.com Arena

TV/Radio: Spectrum SportsNet, Bally Sports SoCal/710 AM, 570 AM