Clippers clobber LeBron’s Lakers

KAWHI Leonard and the

Clippers won the opening round of Los Angeles’s revitalised battle for basketball supremacy yesterday, defeating LeBron James and the Lakers 112-102 in a pulsating season-opening clash at the Staples Center.

Leonard, who arrived at the Clippers in the off-season after leading Toronto to the NBA title last season, wasted no time roaring back into action, leading the scoring with 30 points.

“It was great. A lot of emotions, game one,” said Leonard, who grew up in Riverside, near Los Angeles.

“I am just happy we came out and got a victory. We had great practices and some carry over from that tonight.”

The Clippers attacked the rim, forced easy turnovers, used a stingy defence to keep James and his new sidekick Anthony Davis in check. Leonard also had six rebounds and five assists, reserve guard Lou Williams finished with 21 points and power forward Montrezl Harrell tallied 17 points and seven rebounds.

James shot seven-of-19 for 18 points and Davis shot eightof-21 for 25 points for the

Lakers who are hoping their offseason changes will boost the team’s fortunes.

“It is the first game,” said James. “It was a huge test. We have a lot of room to improve.”

In Toronto, Fred VanVleet scored a career-high 34 points as the Toronto Raptors got their NBA title defence off to a winning start with a 130-122 overtime win over the New Orleans Pelicans.

Pascal Siakam also tallied 34 points and added 18 rebounds before fouling out of the NBA’s season-opening contest at Scotiabank Arena which featured the Raptors’ championship banner and ring ceremony.

Both teams were missing some big names as the Raptors began life without Kawhi Leonard and the Pelicans lost Anthony Davis in a trade and were missing injured first pick Zion Williamson.