Coming off two impressive blowout victories, the Los Angeles Lakers looked to keep things going on Tuesday night when they welcomed the New Orleans Pelicans to town.
The Pelicans record may not be great, but their roster has a lot of talent, presenting a tough challenge for the Lakers. Ultimately though, the Lakers were able to take care of business with a 110-101 win to improve their record to 37-24.
Luka Doncic kicked off the scoring with a 3-pointer, which was immediately matched by Trey Murphy III. LeBron James then got in on the action from deep, although again, Murphy immediately hit another one of his own.
Zion Williamson was also super aggressive early, attacking the paint to give the Pelicans a lead. Doncic had a three-point play and then found Jake LaRavia and Luke Kennard for triples, but the Pelicans still led 33-31 at the end of first quarter.
James took over for the Lakers offensively to begin the second with back-to-back three-point plays and nine straight points overall. He then found Deandre Ayton for an alley-oop and Doncic hit another 3 to put the Lakers up double digits for the first time.
The Lakers let go of the rope a bit to end the half as Doncic was frustrated with the officiating and picked up a technical foul. The Pelicans closed the second quarter on a run to cut their deficit to 54-51 going into the halftime locker room.
Marcus Smart was playing exceptional defense to begin the second half, coming up with a steal and then finding James for a dunk in transition. One player who was really struggling though was Austin Reaves as he couldn’t get any shots to fall. The Lakers then got careless with the ball and the Pelicans took advantage to regain the lead and force a timeout from JJ Redick.
Reaves eventually got going offensively with back-to-back buckets in the paint. The Lakers couldn’t stop turning the ball over though as they had 20 as a team at the end of the third quarter and went into the fourth trailing 78-76.
L.A.’s frustration with the officiating continued early in the fourth with Deandre Ayton picking up a technical. New Orleans began to build some momentum from there as a three-point play by Zion Williamson put them up by eight.
After another timeout, the Lakers had a nice response with seven straight points. The run didn’t end there though as Reaves connected from deep to regain the lead and then Doncic scored inside.
From there, Willamson had two layups in a row to get the Pelicans deficit back to two. It was all Lakers from there as Smart hit a triple to put the game on ice.
What’s next for the Lakers…
The Lakers have a challenging back-to-back on the horizon as they will travel to take on the Denver Nuggets on Thursday before returning home and hosting the Indiana Pacers on Friday.
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