Lakers and Clippers to face off in critical showdown ahead of playoffs
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LOS ANGELES - If you don’t already have tickets for the highly anticipated "Battle of Los Angeles" when the LA Lakers take on the LA Clippers Wednesday night, expect to pay up for the game that's likely to sell out.
Hours before tip-off, the cheapest resale tickets were going for over $220 in the 300-level and $400 and up for the lower bowl on Ticketmaster.
Tickets were priced similarly on other resale sites.
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The regular season ends on Easter Sunday and Wednesday night’s game could make a significant impact on playoff seeding in the Western Conference.
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This will arguably be the biggest hallway rivalry game for the two franchises. As of Wednesday, LA's two teams were tied with a 41-38 record.
Fighting for a playoff spot
Wednesday looks to be sports cinema at its finest – but despite it being in Hollywood, this is real life.
All eyes will be on Russell Westbrook as he suits up in his Clippers gear and faces his former LA team for the first time. Will "Vintage Brodie" be unleashed and silence the haters, or will Mr. Triple Double crack under pressure hearing the boos and sneers from fans who doubted him for so long?
Westbrook will be backed by fellow All-Star Kawhi Leonard, but the Clippers are without Paul George as he continues to recover from a knee injury, and the Clippers are looking to bounce back after frustrating losses in Memphis and New Orleans. Westbrook has been a great fit for the Clips and as lethal as Leonard has been, the team will need the offense to fire from all cylinders and pack a punch in defense to come out with a win.
Under head coach Ty Lue, the Clippers are 10-0 against the Lakers. This will be the second game of a back-to-back for the purple and gold, while the Clippers have had three days of rest. According to reports, the Lakers are expected to rest Anthony Davis or LeBron James.
The Lakers look to be the Cinderella story this season.
After a brutal start under head coach Darvin Ham, the season looked grim. Despite "King James" surpassing Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the league’s all-time scorer, it was unclear and even doubtful if the Lakers could even earn a spot in the play-in tournament with a 27-32 record before the All-Star break. The Lakers front office took action at the trade deadline acquiring Rui Hachimura, Malik Beasley, D’Angelo Russell, Jared Vanderbilt, and Mo Bamba, and did away with Westbrook, Patrick Beverley, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Thomas Bryant and more.
The moves proved to be rewarding, and the Lakers are now ranked seventh in the Western Conference. The Clippers and Lakers have nearly identical records with the Pelicans and Warriors, which makes for multiple scenarios, including a point-differential serving as the final tiebreaker.
Due to the Lakers and Clippers records against the Pelicans, the tiebreaker order would go Lakers, Pelicans, Clippers in the standings if the Lakers were to win Wednesday night. If the Warriors were to be added to the tiebreaker scenario after Wednesday night with a Clippers win, the order would then shift to the Clippers and Lakers ahead of Golden State and New Orleans.
The action at the Crypto.com Arena begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday.