Kawhi Leonard, James Harden get real in LA’s 5-13 start

LOS ANGELES, CA – Kawhi Leonard, James Hardenand the LA Clippers continued stumble on the table as we approach the quarter mark of the regular season. LA fell to 5-13 on the season after their 135-118 loss to Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Cup game. The loss also puts a setback in the Clippers’ hopes of reaching the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup in early December.

The Clippers lost another game because of the same areas that have plagued them all season: turnovers, turnovers, fast breaks, offensive rebounding and their defense.

In Tuesday’s loss to the Lakers, the Clippers turned the ball over 16 times, giving up 20 points off turnovers. They also allowed the Lakers to score 24 fast breaks with 12 offensive rebounds and 11 second-chance points.

“The first three quarters, I thought we played really solid basketball,” he said Tyronn Lue. “Then we (saw) things that hurt us. We had a couple of turnovers. We were one with the ball, we had a chance to go up, (gave up) a steal for a dunk, and then we had a couple more of those, then offensive rebounds. They hurt us going to the glass and not being able to rebound the basketball. They especially gave us that lead. one, and then it just snowballed from there.”

Luka Dončić finished the night with a record 43 points, nine rebounds and 13 assists. Austin Reaves scored 31 points with nine rebounds and three steals, while LeBron James had 25 points, six rebounds and six assists.

“I think we have to start making it difficult for the better offensive players on other teams,” Leonard added after the loss. “Tonight Luka with 40. In one of the games Jokic had 50. So I think we have to make them pass the ball like they do to us. You can see that we are shrinking. And they are not moving, so we have to incorporate some of that into our defense.”

It was the 11th time in 40 career games against the Clippers — regular season and postseason — that Doncic scored at least 40 points against the Clippers. He averaged 32.6 points per game against the Clippers in his career, his highest average against an opponent he played at least 20 games against.

James Harden scored 29 points with five rebounds and nine assists. In his second game back coming off a 10-game absence with an ankle injury, Kawhi Leonard added 19 points and five rebounds. The Clippers saw all five starters score in double figures, including Chris Dunn (19 points) and John Collins (18 points). Ivica Zubac, who was double-teamed all night without Deandre Ayton in the Lakers lineup, finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

“I felt good,” Leonard said of his health. “Hopefully we can build some minutes because this team needs that. We’ll probably have to increase our minutes to get some wins, so we’ll see what happens.”

Kawhi Leonard in his 2nd game back from injury:

“I felt good. Hopefully we can build some minutes because this team needs that. We’ll probably have to increase our minutes to get some wins, so we’ll see what happens.” pic.twitter.com/43judkZkcT

— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) November 26, 2025

We’re still less than a quarter of the way through the NBA season, and there’s still a big stretch of the season left to turn things around.

“(We’re just taking it) one game at a time,” James Harden explained. “It’s simple. Nothing else you can overlook. I think we showed some great signs tonight. Obviously we’re not getting morale wins, but we did some really good things tonight. Just keep chipping away. It’s only 18 games into the season. We’ve got a lot of games left to hit our stride. But we’ve dealt with all the changes from you to the letter. is Kawhi’s second game, so there’s going to be different lineups and different rotations. We understand that, but tonight was a good springboard for us.

The feeling from Lue, Leonard and Harden after the game is that despite their frustrations, the Clippers are confident they can figure things out and pull themselves out of this disastrous start.

“What else are we going to do?” Harden asked. “You have confidence every day you wake up, don’t you?”

Toward the end of his postgame press conference, Lue was asked how the team remained confident despite a 5-13 start that placed them as the third-worst team in the Western Conference.

“(We’re just) staying positive,” Lue said. “We’ve been here before. We haven’t been this far, but I have confidence in this team that we’re going to get on the right track. We need a couple of wins that we have to string together and get our guys to play enough minutes and things with changes. We have the right intention, we’re doing things the right way, we’re building our foundations on both sides of the basketball.

“Now, if we don’t try or the guys don’t think we can win, then it would be something very different. They are, we, the coaches are. We’re looking for all the answers. We’re playing with young guys trying to figure it out. We’ll be fine for me. If I wasn’t, I’d tell you.”

It’s only been 18 games, so there’s definitely time to settle things down. That time, however, is quickly running out.