FINAL 3 MINUTES | LAKERS vs CLIPPERS Ending | MARCH 1, 2025

Don't switch on that ball screen action. Pocket pass to Finney Smith. Tipped up out of bounds off of Hayes. It'll be clipper ball. Twelve turnover for the Lakers. When you have guards attacking the baskets. Now, you see Hayes and going for the block shot is going to allow Zubac to be able to come in and get an easy one. Also see Luca Dantas who is responsible for keeping Zubac off the glass. Playing with five fouls. Can't risk putting a body on Zubac with that possession. Harden trying to get downhill. Rips through. Got peeled clean. Lost control. We're going to have a jump ball on the play with Hayes and Harden or Hayes and Zubac. It was two different clippers that got the hand on the basketball but give the Gabe Benson a lot of credit. James Harden attacking Luca Dantas. All Dantas can do is get out of his way but Benson coming back in, getting a hand on that basketball, knocking it away from Harden, saves his team two points. Let's see who steps to the circle. Is it Harden or Zubac as you mentioned? Oh, I'm going to have their hands up. If I'm Zubac, I'm standing there. They got to make me move. It looks like it's going to be Harden. But again, when you go to the jump circle, Zubac should have just gone there immediately, right? And let allow Harden to stand on the outside and force the officials to make the change. Well, it worked out that way. Dunn on Dantas lost it. It'll be Laker basketball in the turnover. Another miscue. Go back to the possession where there was five on four and a turnover. Now, Chris Dunn with Luca Dantas playing with five fouls. All he has to do is go with his chest, force the foul or get the easy bucket. Dunn picks up Luca on the switch. Luca around the world. Dunn stayed down on the fake and they get the miss and the defensive rebound. Wonderful defense again by Chris Dunn. Luca now 9 of 22. Harden out top. Under two and a half to go. They show him two bodies. Lost it again. LeBron filling the lane. James with 28. And this Laker team is lethal in transition. Yeah, another turnover. James Harden giving up the basketball and then Luca Dantas finding LeBron James. Great hands and a strip to finish through the contact for a six-point lead. Dunn beating of the season between the Clippers and the Lakers. Right now, the Lakers, the quote-unquote home team leading 104 to 98. Mark Jones courtside along with Corey Alexander, George Sodano as well. 213 to go. What do the Clippers have to do here? They've turned it over 17 times. They have and back-to-back six turnover games for James Harden. He's normally shorthanded with the rock. The double team Leonard. Get it out of his hands to Harden from deep. Loose ball comes to Jones. Harden gonna dial up another one. That one comes off too and this time Hayes secures the rebound. Got it to Vincent and now Dantzsch. Two great looks for Harden though when you think about his ability to knock down the three ball unable to get either one of them to go and make it a one point one possession game. Dantzsch at midcourt. Dunn picks him up on the switch. Derrick Jones Jr. holding a shoulder took a bump. Hayes inside. But Jonesy. Derrick Jones Jr. did something to his shoulder. Normally, he would have gotten over there and try to contest that. And left a three-point shooter but was dragging that right arm with that possession. The lead is up to eight. Leonard with a quick catch and shoot three. Rims out to Harden. Drives it. Zubats with the offensive rebound and put back. With Hayes laying on the court. Lead is down to six. And Jones picking up his former teammate Dantzsch. Full court. Zubats with a great night. Twenty-seven and seventeen. Season high for him. Ten on the shot clock for Dantzsch. He's had a big fourth quarter. Finney-Smith thought about it over to Vincent for three and it comes off to Harden. Clippers alive. Lyon trapped it. Holder into Finney-Smith and got it. And this lead is down to four. It's a four-point game. More than enough time for the Clippers. Gonna need to get a defensive stop on this possession. Jones on Dantzsch. Jones tipped it out of bounds. Shot clock down to eleven. I believe they may wanna look at that. Well, that happened right in front of us. And then they need to look at this. Yeah, Ty Lue's gonna challenge. But look at Derek Jones Jr. with the great hands but let's see, does this touch Luka Dantzsch's knee on the way out? That is off of Luka. And we got a great look at that. It happens right in front of us. Gonna be interesting what the officials decide when they go through challenges now. One of the new rule changes is you can call a foul if it forces the out of bounds. So, it'll be Clipper basketball. They're down four. Twenty-five point four to go if you're the Clippers. What are you thinking offensively? Harden misses last two threes. Kawhi scored the last bucket. Honestly, Jones, at this point, I wanna go as quick as I can to Zubac. See if you can get him to seal right under the rim. Go finish strong. Here's Kawhi. Off the brush screen. Got a clean look. And left it short. James with the rebound. And they're gonna have to foul LeBron. LeBron will go to the foul line. A 77% free throw shooter on the season. And that's the fourth on Zubac. Boy, Leonard had a clean look. He really did but when you consider Kawhi three of eight now from beyond a three-point arc. But each and every one of his shots has gotten flatter and flatter. And so, that's the thing, the reason why I'm thinking you go right inside of Zubac to trigger. Lakers leading by four. And we're gonna have a foul. Uh oh. James holding his right side. And slow to get up. Grimacing holding the rib area. And again, when you have a hard time getting up like that as he. Let's see if he takes a hit or if this is more of a twist. But coming across, catching the basketball. I think that's more of a twist. Foul's gonna go against the Clippers and they didn't have any fouls to give. That's gonna go against Leonard and you know, we've all come to expect through the years that. To let it go. Yeah, but we we saw that though. Yeah. We saw, watch when the basketball is knocked loose first. There is contact afterwards but Kawhi had already knocked the basketball out of Bron's hands which makes that contact incidental and now gives the Clippers another opportunity to cut into this lead. No Zubac on the floor to look for something right under the basket. Bodanovic in the ballgame for shooting purposes. Has his platoon. Harden gonna try and get downhill. Gotta work expeditiously off the screen by Bodanovic on the pick and pop. It looks good. Oh, it rattled. Halfway down and out and that should do it. The Lakers will secure the victory and inch closer to that number three and even number two seed as Luka Doncic celebrates his 26th birthday with LeBron James by scoring 31 points. James with 28. To help out the Lakers as well. In the shadows of greatness, the Lakers win it 106 to 102. Folks, thanks for watching. This Battle of Los Angeles for Corey Alexander, George Sedano, and many talented people behind the camera. You never get a chance to see. I'm Mark Jones coming up next. SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt.