The Los Angeles Lakers are good again!

Ok maybe not. But they’re better than the Clippers!

After a putrid first half, the Lakers exploded in the third quarter and finished off a depleted Clippers team, using big nights from Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov to earn the win.

In total, seven Lakers reached double figures in scoring while all nine players scored on the night in what turned out to be a complete team effort in the win.

Luol Deng lives!

Turns out, if you play Luol Deng at the four, he does good things! Deng has seen more minutes at the power forward lately with injuries to Tarik Black and Larry Nance and time missed from Julius Randle with the birth of his baby.

Tonight, Deng continued his high level of play with possibly his best game, or at least most impactful game, as a Laker, scoring 13 points while grabbing 12 boards with two steals, two blocks and two assists.

Deng has looked better in recent weeks, even in his time at small forward. Whether it was the lingering calf injury from the preseason or just finding a role with his new team, Deng has been one of the few bright spots in what was a long string of ugly play in December.

Winning is fun

The Lakers haven’t won much in December and after their 10-10 start, they have been bad. However, they’ve had one of the toughest schedules in the league and are coming off a 7-game road trip and finally returned home on Sunday.

The good news? The Lakers leave LA twice between now and January 20 and do not play consecutive games outside of LA during that span. This is a big stretch for the Lakers if they want to revitalize their playoff hopes, which the Lakers still are only three games out of the eight seed despite being 10 games under .500, somehow.

Fan Takeaways

https://twitter.com/medrano_man/status/813265095077679107

good confidence boost for January

— Ricky 🅱🅱🅱ailey (@thebailey24) December 26, 2016

LAL fought the WHOLE game, clips didn't take them serious

— Deb (@Debmac0718) December 26, 2016

MOZGOD! Nuff said!

— Albert Aguilar (@Tha_Real_Albert) December 26, 2016