The New Orleans Pelicans and the Los Angeles Lakers went into their play-in game with both teams wanting to make a statement. The Lakers wanted to show everyone their blowout win over the Pelicans on Sunday wasn’t a fluke and New Orleans wanted to let everyone know that they weren’t that team that lost badly to Los Angeles on Sunday at home.
To start the first, as expected, both teams got off to hot starts in the game as the Pelicans led the Lakers, 13-10 with 8:10 to go in the first. The Lakers budged ahead halfway through the first stanza, 21-20 on a score from Lebron James from 3-point range. The Pelicans then went on a 9-3 run to take a 29-23 lead over the Lakers with two minutes left in the first. Zion Williamson scored ten points in the first and finished off strong to end the quarter for New Orleans with the Pels leading, 34-26.
In the second, the Lakers made a charge early to take the lead from the Pelicans, 38-35 after a 12-0 run which forced a time out for New Orleans. The Lakers continued to stay hot and pushed their lead to 60-50 at the half.
In the third quarter, the Lakers moved ahead, 66-53 with a couple of buckets from Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell and then stretched it out to 73-57 with Lebron dishing a plethora of assists and taking two charges in the process of the run. Zion Williams led the Pelicans back to cut the lead for Los Angeles to 83-76, heading into the fourth quarter.
In the last period The Lakers and Pelicans played stalemate early with 9:18 to go with Los Angeles leading, 89-80. When the game resumed from a timeout, the Pelicans went on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 91-89 with a 3-pointer from Trey Murphy which forced a timeout from the Lakers with 5:22 to go. Zion Williams scored his 38th point with 3:32 to go to tie the game at 93 before Anthony Davis scored on a put back to give the Lakers a 95-93 lead with 2:40 left.
The game was tied again at 95 when Williamson went to the rack and finished over Davis to give him 40 points on the night. After Zion scored, he exited the game with an injury while the contest was swinging between Los Angeles and New Orleans. With the score tied at 99, Russell forced a turnover from the Pelicans and Davis caught an alley-oop to give the Lakers a 101-99 lead with a minute to go. After the Pelicans only made 1-2 at the free-throw line, Russell hit a big three in the corner for the Lakers to extend their lead to 104-100 with :50 seconds to play in the game. CJ McCollum hit a key jumper and cut the lead to two points for the Lakers until Davis scored on two free throws to give the Lakers a 106-102 lead with 14.8 seconds to go. The Lakers then closed it out with free throws late and defeat the Pelicans, 110-106.
Zion Williams finished with 40 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, while Lebron James had 23 points, nine rebounds and nine assists to lead the way for the Lakers. The Lakers will take on the Nuggets in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs!
