EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — If the Los Angeles Lakers were tired, it showed. If they spent too much energy and shed too much sweat to win four consecutive road games, it was obvious.

The Lakers looked every part the tired team in a 125-118 loss Wednesday to the Clippers at Crypto.com Arena.

Unfortunately for the Lakers, it was nothing new. They lost to their down-the-hall rivals an 11th consecutive time dating to 2020.

Adding to the bad news, the loss nudged the Lakers (41-39) closer to play-in tournament territory, with two games left in the regular season. The top six teams in the Western Conference earn automatic playoff bids, while teams 7-10 will fight for the last two playoff spots.

Nothing’s set in stone — how could it be in such a wildly unpredictable NBA season? But the Lakers will likely finish seventh or eighth in the West after Wednesday’s result.

It was pretty obvious the Lakers played an overtime game the previous night in Utah. They were particularly slow in the first half, to say the least.

LeBron James had only three points and four turnovers as the Lakers trailed at halftime, 71-52.

“We had some things that just didn’t go our way,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “Definitely a lack of energy at the outset, a lack of execution.”

Then again, it could have been worse — the Clippers scored 77 in the first half against the Lakers earlier this season.

The Lakers’ deficit swelled to 24 early in the third quarter Wednesday until James started answering. He scored 16 points in the third quarter and the Lakers were down only 11 going into the fourth.

The Lakers couldn’t stop two players: Kawhi Leonard and Norman Powell. Leonard played 43 minutes, including the entire second half, and finished with 25 points.

Powell, the former NBA sixth man of the year, outscored the entire Lakers bench by himself, 27-25.

The Clippers (42-38) had three full days of rest, which showed. Guard Russell Westbrook had 14 points and four assists against his former team, doing most of his damage in the first quarter.

"He made two threes, made a couple pull-ups," Lakers center Anthony Davis said. “That’s an easy booster for them. Our game plan was for him to kind of shoot the ball, and he made them. That kind of snowballed down to everybody else making shots.”

Davis scored only 17 points on a relatively quiet night. James finished with 33 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. He didn’t seem too perturbed about the loss.

“At the end of the day, we’re still playing good ball so we’re not thinking about that [defeat] too much,” he said.

The Lakers play at home against Phoenix and Utah before the regular season ends.