Orange County Register

Dalton Knecht of the Lakers dunks for two of his 19 points during Sunday night’s game against the Clippers at Crypto.com Arena. Knecht also had four rebounds and two steals. Luke Hales / Getty Images

Lakers center Trey Jemison blocks the shot of Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard during Sunday night’s game won by the host Lakers. Mark J. Terrill / AP

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being his most in a Lakers uniform. Doncic entered Sunday 14 for 58 from beyond the arc.

LeBron James had 17 points (6-of-17 shooting), nine assists and five rebounds, finishing one point shy of reaching 50,000 career points (regular season and playoffs combined).

Rookie wing Dalton Knecht scored 19 points and made five of his eight 3-point attempts – the most points and 3s he’s had in a game since the Lakers’ Jan. 28 blowout loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.

Finney-Smith finished with 11 points and three rebounds.

Kawhi Leonard led the Clippers with a season-high 33 points on 13-of-23 shooting to go with 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the year.

James Harden added 13 points and eight assists but missed 10 of his 14 shots. Dunn finished with 15 points and four assists. Zubac had a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double before fouling out late.

The Clippers, who trailed 84-63 late in the third, cut their deficit to 93-88 midway through the fourth after a Zubac turnaround hook shot.

But the Lakers grabbed three offensive rebounds on their ensuing possession, a pair from Jarred Vanderbilt and one from Trey Jemison, before Doncic assisted James on a corner 3 to put the Lakers up by eight.

“It wasn’t a play that was more emblematic of our effort than when it was 93-88,” coach JJ Redick said. “These opponents that we’re playing, they’re really good teams, they’re fighting like we’re fighting. These are playoff-like games just in terms of the physicality, the effort from both teams. That was a massive, massive play.”

Clippers’ leading scorer Norman Powell, who missed the previous five games because of left patellar tendinopathy, briefly returned on Sunday.

He scored four points, making one of his five shots, in nine minutes before subbing out, with the team saying that Powell wasn’t going to return because of soreness in his right hamstring.

With Sunday’s win, the Lakers (38-21) moved into the No. 2 spot in the Western Conference standings, ahead of the Denver Nuggets (39-22) by percentage points, and a half-game ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies (38-22).