The Los Angeles Lakers held on for an oddly impressive 103-101 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday as the NBA officially restarted its 2019-20 season. The Lakers didn't play particularly well from a box score standpoint. They shot under 40 percent from the field, and 30 percent from 3-point range. They turned the ball over 16 times, and for stretches they were sloppier than even that number would indicate. The reason the win was impressive? Precisely that. They didn't play well. And they still found a way to beat a top-tier contender, though it must be mentioned that the Clips were playing without Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell. It speaks to the security of two-star systems that LeBron James had an off night -- 6 for 19 from the field for 16 points -- only to have Anthony Davis pick him up with 34 points. It's hugely encouraging that Kyle Kuzma and Dion Waiters combined for 27 points and 10 boards and were plus-29 off the Lakers bench. That's how you win when your best player doesn't play his best offensively, and it doesn't hurt when said best player doesn't let his shooting struggles affect him on the defensive end. Put simply, LeBron was incredible defensively on Thursday. His energy and focus was, dare I say, at an NBA Finals high. He fought through screens, made multiple efforts, was aware and active off the ball and absolutely locked Kawhi Leonard down on numerous isolation possessions. That's an auspicious development for the Lakers, who were shredded by Leonard in the three regular-season matchups prior to the suspension. To be clear, it's not that the Lakers truly shut Leonard down on Thursday. He had 28 points. But it was a tough 28 points. He was just 7 of 16 from the field. LeBron, Kyle Kuzma, Danny Green, even the showing bigs on occasion, consistently stayed in front of Kawhi and made him go to multiple counter moves to get shots off. Davis saw significant time on Leonard and more than held his own. In a potential playoff matchup, the Clippers have multiple bodies they can throw at LeBron, but the fear is -- or was -- that the Lakers might not have the same reservoir of options for Leonard, especially when Paul George spreads them doubly thin. Having to consistently send second defenders to Leonard would be catastrophic to the Lakers defense against the weapon-rich Clippers. The Lakers need to be able to contain Leonard one-on-one as much as possible. Everyone took that challenge Thursday night, and LeBron led the way. Here he is putting the clamps on Kawhi at the end of the first half: Prior to the suspension, LeBron had spent more time guarding Leonard than any other player in the league, over 16 minutes of actual game time and at least 61 partial possessions, per NBA.com's matchup tracking data. During that time, Leonard shot 63 percent (7 for 11) when being guarded by LeBron. On Thursday, Leonard was 0 for 4 when James was defending him, per the same NBA matchup data.
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