The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Los Angeles Lakers 103-97 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, on Thursday, to begin their 2022-23 regular season with a victory.

The Clippers ace forward Kawhi Leonard returned in this game off the bench. Having played 21 minutes and 17 seconds, he shot 6-for-12 from the field to get 14 points and seven rebounds. He scored his first play after grabbing a defensive rebound, driving all the way to the left elbow area and shooting in front of Juan Toscano-Anderson. Leonard's second scoring play happened in Toscano-Anderson's face as well, but it was a turnaround jumper after posting up around the left elbow area.

Judging by Leonard's offensive moves, he has recovered well in both power and leaping ability. However, he is still not agile enough defensively, especially when he had to face guards who called screens.

John Wall, who joined the Clippers as a free agent during the offseason to fix their major shortcoming in the orchestrator position, was sent to the game off the bench as well. Though he missed all of his four attempts from downtown, Wall went 6-for-9 in middle range jumpers. Though he is not as fast as he was in his prime, he is still sharp enough in transition offense.

As Leonard's partner as the Clippers' star duo, Paul George was in a poor shooting form on Thursday night, missing eight of his 12 field goal (FG) shots, including five at the 3-point line. He also committed five personal fouls and five turnovers despite contributing a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Ivica Zubac was the Clippers' best performing player in the game. Not only did he score 14 points and 17 rebounds, including six on the offensive glass, he also had five blocks. His presence limited the opponents to shoot 20-for-29 in the paint to get only 40 points.

Thursday night again forced the Lakers to realize how abnormal their roster is. The team shot as disappointingly as 9-for-45 from deep. Two of the team's starting guards Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley combined to go 1-for-12 in 3-pointers. Westbrook missed all 11 of his shots from the field to get only two points. Though he had five steals, his negative effect on the Lakers' spacing caused more damage than his contributions.

The performances of the other two of the Lakers' three starting guards in Thursday's game made Westbrook look even more embarrassing. Though Beverley produced a lot of bricks, his defensive energy enabled the purple and gold to launch several scoring runs. As long as he stayed out of foul trouble, Beverley was playing a positive role for the team, which was reflected by his team-high plus/minus of +7.

Lonnie Walker IV led the Lakers in scoring with 26 points. He kept charging the Clippers' rim, shooting 6-for-10 in the paint and earning six free throws, the second-most of the team along with that of LeBron James. Walker IV's 12 points in the four quarter were why the game remained alive until the last minute.

The Lakers had more than once chance to come back and win Thursday's game, but they were held back more than on shortcomings including poor spacing. Their most efficient offensive squad must include Anthony Davis and LeBron James at the same time. In that case, Davis could maximize his power as an agile big-man with wide finishing range with the feeding of James; James had a reliable passing target that he knows could put the ball into the basket.

However, James turns 38 years old in about two months; Davis has never been noted for his durability – when he fell onto the ground on his back in the third quarter, the rest of the Lakers held their breath. They can't play 40 minutes per game. Meanwhile, the Lakers' bench unit is far from good enough to allow James and Davis follow each other on the court and to the bench.

When James was playing without Davis in the game, he was the defensive target of four defenders when he had the ball and crossed the 3-point line. The rest of the Lakers were not able to shoot the ball he kicked out into the basket to set James free. When Davis was on the court without James, he didn't have a teammate who could feed him the ball on the right timing and in the right position so he could finish without dribbling too much. The Clippers were willing to see Davis work hard in isolation because that would consume him more energy and he was not efficient when he attacked like that.

The Clippers limited Leonard's time heavily to protect him in Thursday's game. As he shakes off his rust and the load management in the following of the season, the Clippers will only grow more and more baffling for the Lakers.

Where did Joel Embiid lose his soul?

The Philadelphia 76ers lost to the Milwaukee Bucks 90-88 in their first home game at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Thursday, suffering their second straight loss since the regular season had begun.

It is a rare in today's NBA to have such a low-scoring game as neither side reached 45 percent of FG rate. Joel Embiid, who averaged 30.6 points last season as the league's scoring champion, got only 15 points for the 76ers on Thursday night. Moreover, 11 of those points happened in the first quarter, when he was still aggressive enough to challenge Brook Lopez in the paint.

Embiid only scored four points in the following three quarters, including missing all seven shots of his in the second half. Four of those attempts were from the middle range and one from downtown. As the most offensively damaging big man who led the NBA with 803 free throw attempts last season, Embiid only earned three free throws (and made two) in Thursday's game, all in the first quarter.

That is not hard to understand since most of his shots were mid-range jumpers. Since Embiid didn’t hurt Lopez much, the "Splash Mountain" played comfortably over 30 minutes on the court to deliver two blocks and drain four triples for the Bucks, the most in this game.

As Embiid failed to shoulder his offensive duty, James Harden had to stand out and take over. Having focused on orchestrating to get nine points and six assists in the first half, Harden exploded to score 22 points in the second half, including 16 in the final quarter. Though he went only 1-for-7 from deep, Harden shot 8-for-11 to kill in the middle range. Not only is his scoring production looked like his performance as three-consecutive-time scoring champion in the Houston Rockets, his playing time over 40 minutes on Thursday night should remind the 76ers of why Harden decided to leave the Rockets back then.

Giannis Antetokounmpo was not in his best offensive form either, but he was able to do other things than scoring 21 points for the Bucks. While Lopez stood in paint to protect the rim, Antetokounmpo covered the rest of the area within the team's 3-point line, protecting 13 rebounds and denying three shots. He also matched Jrue Holiday with team-high eight assists.

While the two sides' starting lineups struggled in the defensive mire, Bobby Portis led his backup teammates to stand out for the Bucks, outscoring their 76ers counterparts 29-13. During the 26-18 third quarter when the Bucks extended their lead to double digits, Portis contributed nine points and six rebounds.