Lakers' Sexton spearheads game-changing run in win over Clippers

Los Angeles Lakers guard Collin Sexton. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Lakers' Collin Sexton spearheads game-changing run in win over Clippers

By Olamilekan Ajayi | Last updated Oct 29, 2026 10:02 AM ET

Collin Sexton supplied the stretch that decided the Los Angeles Lakers' 103-87 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.

The moment fans kept replaying came seconds after one of his baskets, when a Clippers big man ended up face to face with the Lakers backup guard.

With Luka Doncic sidelined by back tightness, Sexton came off the bench for a season-high 21 points in 21 minutes. He shot 6-of-11, made four of his seven three-point attempts and finished with a team-best +23. He scored the Lakers' final 11 points of the third quarter, including back-to-back three-pointers, and the Lakers carried an 85-66 lead into the fourth.

Late in that run, Sexton scored on Brook Lopez and flexed toward the Clippers bench. Jarred Vanderbilt, playing his first game of the season, gave Lopez a nudge that sent the center toward Sexton, and Sexton stood up to meet him. Lopez raised an arm to keep some distance and appeared to explain that he had been pushed into the spot, and Sexton walked off before it went any further.

Vanderbilt's own return went well beyond the shove, as he finished a +22 in 21 minutes on a night the Lakers needed bodies.

Collin Sexton was ready to THROW HANDS and Brook Lopez wanted NO PART of it https://t.co/s6ixBm1P5y
— BrickCenter (@BrickCenter_) October 29, 2026

The Lakers signed Collin Sexton for nights like this

The Lakers gave Sexton a two-year, $19.2 million deal in July, and a right calf injury kept him out of the season opener. His debut came Oct. 23, also against the Clippers, and it was mostly defense. Eleven seconds after checking in, he stripped Darius Garland on a drive, and he finished with three steals in 16 minutes and enough pressure on the ball that his teammates talked about it afterward.

"He's a pest. He feeds off the energy, he loves doing the little things and plays the game the right way," Austin Reaves said after that game.

In Tuesday's 136-129 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, Sexton scored nine points on 4-of-11 shooting and missed all five of his three-point attempts. On the second night of that back-to-back, he became the reason a short-handed team beat its crosstown rival by 16.

"When I step in between those lines it's us against them. I'm going to do whatever my team needs. I feel like I turn to a different person," Sexton said after the game.

Collin Sexton on going to war for his teammates “When I step in between those lines is us against them. I’m going and doing whatever my team needs for me. I feel like I turn into a different person when it’s time to go. And I think my teammates know that. So they try to talk to me a little bit, but they know I’m in the zone and ready to go to war. And that’s how I look at it. Whenever I step in between those lines is wartime. So that’s how I look at it for sure.”
— (@PurpGoldLakers) October 29, 2026