Wednesday, it was the other way around.

A traffic standstill caused by two fatal accidents on each side of Interstate 10 kept Lawler stopped near Cabazon in the Palm Springs area as he tried to make the usual 135-mile drive from his home in La Quinta to Staples Center to call the Clippers' game against San Antonio.

At the start of the telecast on Prime, Michael Smith and Don MacLean explained Lawler was in transit and expected to arrive soon. By halftime, Smith informed viewers Lawler had moved maybe a mile in six hours and was nowhere close.

Lawler posted updates on Facebook with updates about how he was stuck between 2:45 and 9:15 p.m., "the first time in 50-plus years I've not been able to show up at work," he said Thursday. "I just turned around at that point and went home."

Smith ended up moving over to do play-by-play for the dramatic Clippers' win while MacLean joined him as the analyst in what could have been the tallest NBA broadcast team of all time. Both men are listed at 6-foot-10.

It's actually the second Clippers contest Lawler has missed in two years after going 25 years with perfect attendance. A year ago, Lawler and Smith were questionably suspended by Fox Sports for a game because of remarks they made about Memphis player and Iranian-born Hamed Haddadi.

On Thursday, Lawler said he was back on the 10 freeway heading to LAX to catch the Clippers' charter flight to Denver for tonight's telecast. That is, unless Lawler's Law ends up playing out more like Murphy's Law.