Bronny James contained as Clippers clinch G League win over Lakers

OCEANSIDE -- After having the entire week off for Thanksgiving, the San Diego Clippers (4-2) returned to action against Bronny James and the South Bay Lakers (5-2), and won 124-113.

With the current rotation for the Los Angeles Clippers, the two-way and assignment players were once again absent. On the plus side for San Diego, they were coming off a win that also didn't feature any of the two-way players.

Taylor Funk led the way for the Clippers, scoring a career-high 30 points to go along with 10 rebounds. He shot 8-of-11 from the 3-point line, and sits as one of the top shooters in the league with a current clip of higher than 47% from beyond the arc this season. "Just the flow of the game. I mean, give it to our bigs too. They have to make decisions coming down the floor each time, and they were just feeding me with the hot hand. So it was a mix of our point guards and our bigs," he said after the win.

Bronny James, son of NBA star Lebron James, was active for the Lakers tonight. Fans were excited to see the young player out on the floor, where he would be a marquee feature of this matchup. Unfortunately for said Lakers fans in attendance, James only finished with 10 points and five rebounds -- a credit to the Clippers defense that hounded him all night.

Funk mentioned that though James was out there, it felt like just another game. As NBA caliber players are potentially on the floor on any given night, the Clippers don't have time to worry about who they're specifically playing, and are more so focused on actually playing the game.

Patrick Baldwin Jr. left the game early with an injury, the extent of which was not revealed yet, so his status is unknown. He later returned to the bench in street clothes, so the staff quickly determined he was done for the night.

The Clippers will play the Lakers on Sunday night as the second part of a back-to-back. This gives both teams time to refuel and regroup before going at it again. As a reminder, the NBA G League runs the season in two parts: First the Tip-Off Tournament (which is going on right now) where records after the first 14 games are used to determine a bracket that culminates at the Winter Showcase; and then a regular season with the NBA G League Playoffs that begin in April.

On getting the win tonight, Funk also noted the next man up mentality by saying, "Our starting five that we started tonight.. We have years and years of experience in the league, so we're all ready. We put together a pretty good team this year. We have some rooks, but we also do have a lot of experience."

While they were able to pull the win out tonight, there will always be adjustments to make. "I think our pick-and-roll coverage needs to be a bit better," said Funk. "Protecting the paint too -- we gave up too many backdoor layups. Our help side (defense) will need to be a bit better. Other than that, I believe we executed the game plan."

They'll have to do it again in less than 24 hours as the rematch begins at 6 p.m. at Frontwave Arena.