The Los Angeles Lakers lost again on Friday night, dropping a pivotal game to the New Orleans Pelicans 111-114. The return of LeBron James (ankle) and ...
This was a must-win game, and Los Angeles squandered a prime opportunity.The Lakers are a better team with James and Davis in the fold—that's not a question—but at this point, it's not enough. The Lakers need to steal a game or two and hope that San Antonio stumbles.Things might not go the Lakers' way—they rarely have this year—but we can expect Los Angeles to come out swinging each and every night.And who knows? Every loss stings.Los Angeles Is Still Clinging on to HopeWhile Los Angeles may not have time to get back into the play-in mix, the Lakers haven't given up hope. We know what we're playing for," Davis said, per Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. "We know the position that we're in. Given everything that has transpired this season—the injuries, the failed Westbrook experiment, questions about coach Frank Vogel's future—few would blame the Lakers for packing it in over the final few games.That's not what the Lakers intend to do." At 34-43, the Lakers have no margin for error, and they made too many mistakes against the Pelicans.While James made an impact, he was just 13-of-23 from the floor—which is not good enough. Yes, Davis was playing for the first time since mid-February, and he and James need time to get back in sync. The problem is that the Lakers don't have time. Russell Westbrook had just 12 points in 31 minutes and was a dismal 5-of-15 shooting.The Pelicans, meanwhile, got big performances from Brandon Ingram (29 points) and CJ McCollum (32 points) to outlast the Lakers. It was a back-and-forth game, but New Orleans outscored L.A. 28-24 in the final frame to clinch the victory.Los Angeles has lost five straight and sits a game behind the San Antonio Spurs for the final play-in spot in the West. The reality is that even with their stars on the court, the Lakers aren't good enough or deep enough to beat playoff-caliber teams consistently.With five games left, Los Angeles needs help to reach the play-in tournament, and losing to the Pelicans—who hold the No. 9 seed in the West—was a massive blow. Here are some other key takeaways from the game.Too Little, Too Late for the LakersThe big takeaway is this: Los Angeles lost a game that it needed to win. The Los Angeles Lakers lost again on Friday night, dropping a pivotal game to the New Orleans Pelicans 111-114. The return of LeBron James (ankle) and Anthony Davis (MCL, foot) was supposed to provide hope for an L.A. squad on the outside looking in.
New Orleans' three stars and defense finished the game in style. In the fourth quarter, CJ McCollum, Brandon Ingram and Jonas Valanciunas combined for 23 of the ...
“It’s a credit to the guys in the locker room and the people in our organization. “It’s been a long journey to get to this point, starting the season off the way that we did,” Green said. BI attributed his success to just playing faster to Bally Sports New Orleans’ Jen Hale and the head coach confirmed it in postgame. “Sometimes he’ll have a tendency to survey the game, but when he plays fast, there’s nothing anybody can do with him. He finished with a game-high 38 points but had a lone bucket inside the paint and didn’t attempt a single free throw during this stretch. Individually, Brandon’s cooked his former team in all those instances as evidenced by averages of 27.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 2.5 turnovers, while shooting 57.5% from the field. New Orleans had the fast break points edge (14-11) but trailed in the points in the paint department (12-6). Thankfully, the Pelicans had McCollum standing in their corner to offset the Lakers aggressive attack. If that four-point swing doesn’t happen, the Lakers maybe hold on for victory. Russell Westbrook and Malik Monk combined for three straight makes from 3-point range to open up the Lakers’ biggest lead. But instead of New Orleans swinging an 87-86 deficit decidedly in their favor, things quickly went the other way. New Orleans’ three stars and defense finished the game in style.
The 77th game of New Orleans' 82-game regular season schedule brought a playoff feel to it from the opening tip in Los Angeles, an atmosphere that traveled ...
A pre-lottery slot of 8 would mean three teams (from pre-lotto spots 9 through 14 in the May 17 drawing) would have to leapfrog the Lakers in order to bump the pick out of the top 10. Cleveland, or Washington’s three-game road trip to Boston, Minnesota and Atlanta. There’s certainly been plenty of good news lately for New Orleans professional basketball, but there could be more on the way during next month’s NBA draft lottery – in the form of a first-round pick no one could’ve expected when the ’21-22 season began. For New Orleans to maintain the most optimal odds of seizing the Lakers’ draft pick (by the way, if it lands 11-30 of the first round, the pick conveys to Memphis), Los Angeles needs to remain in the No. 8 position. At the start of this season, any sane NBA analyst would’ve told you it was preposterous to believe Los Angeles might finish the campaign with one of the league’s 10 worst records, but through Friday’s games, only seven teams have a poorer mark than the 31-46 Lakers. So if the season ended today, Los Angeles would enter the May 17 draft lottery with a No. 8 pre-lottery slot, holding a 26.3 percent chance of winning a top-four pick (for the Pelicans) and 6.0 percent odds of bringing a No. 1 overall pick (to the Pelicans). Based on a series of trades that date back to the 2019 blockbuster headlined by Davis and Brandon Ingram, the Pelicans will get the Lakers’ 2022 first-round pick if the selection places in the top 10 of the draft lottery. Around midnight, Pelicans fans were ecstatic to see their team ultimately pull off a dramatic, 114-111 victory over the Lakers, capping a 3-0 sweep of the season series.
The April fool, if you will, as Lakers lose another to Pelicans.
trips to Phoenix, San Francisco, and Denver. I didn’t think it would really happen, which is why I did it then, because it was silly to think that they were really that bad. Back in December, when the Lakers were 16-18, I wrote about some other teams full of Hall of Famers who finished with losing records.
Despite getting 38 from LeBron James and 23 from Anthony Davis, the Los Angeles Lakers fell 114-111 in a crucial game to the New Orleans Pelicans.
"We talked to our guys about and we were like, 'Look, we've all played with the street lights out before. "Our mindset is to go 5-0 in these games, and let the chips fall where they may," Davis said. We have to win these games and we have to have that approach." Ingram said that energy was felt before the game and after as well. "I don't look at San Antonio at all," Lakers coach Frank Vogel said of the final stretch. We don't play off hope and 'let's hope we win this game.' We have belief and I believe. "Until that moment, we'll know what our destiny is, but right now, we don't. So keep pushing forward." But by virtue of the Spurs holding the tiebreaker, the Lakers have to pick-up two games on San Antonio before the season's end to steal the final play-in spot. "No matter what's going on on the floor, it just feels like the ball bounces the other way. It's just the way it's been going." So that's the big picture." L. A. faced a crucial matchup against the Western Conference's No. 9 team in New Orleans, two games up on the No. 11 Lakers coming into the night.
Los Angeles is now a game out of the play-in tournament with just five games remaining.
The ball doesn’t always bounce in our favor. James was magnificent in front of the home crowd, scoring 38 points on 13-for-23 shooting to continue a stellar year. Davis had missed the last 18 starts because of a right midfoot sprain but returned with a fervor against the Pelicans, racking up 23 points, 12 rebounds and six assists.
After the Lakers loss to the Pelicans on Friday, LeBron talked about what the defeat means for LA.
The Lakers would now have to complete their remaining five games two games better than the Spurs to make the play-in tournament. After leading through much of the fourth quarter, the Lakers offensively cratered. Friday's loss to the Pelicans is indeed worthy of a proper eulogy.
Is Lakers' Anthony Davis playing today vs. Nuggets? Ananth Pandian. • 6 min read. Anthony Davis Los Angeles Lakers. After a lengthy injury absence, Anthony Davis returned for the Los Angeles Lakers on April 1 against the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Los Angeles Lakers faced off against the New Orleans Pelicans, hoping to avoid getting swept in the season series. Spoiler: they did.
He’s already destroyed the roster and future of this team. Instead, New Orleans was able to chew up some clock and allow the ball to get to McCollum before fouling. The Pelicans deserve credit for grinding out this win. The stars of New Orleans shined, as CJ McCollum and Brandon Ingram combined for 61 to sweep the season series against the Lakers and win 114-111. From a questionable coach’s challenge late in the fourth to fouling the wrong player, the team’s decisions are something that will be questioned for the next 48 hours. The basketball gods continue to make their lives miserable. LeBron can leave and head somewhere else. No one can sit and find me any positives from this game. The ball was first thrown to Valančiūnas, but the Lakers didn’t immediately foul. Today was the day. Davis looked good from the jump, grabbing nine rebounds in just the first half. First off, his decision to not play Austin Reaves was a question mark.
Anthony Davis speaks out after the Lakers suffered what could be a season-defining loss to the Pelicans on Friday.
They have five games remaining and according to AD, they will remain optimistic as the regular season winds down: This is barely the first time Davis was forced to sit out games due to injury. Davis returned to action for the first time since February 16th.