An offensive-heavy game, led by D'Angelo Russell, pushed the Lakers past the Pelicans for the win.
Behind a historic offensive performance in the first half, the Lakers recovered from their defeat against the Nuggets on Friday, with an impressive victory over the Pelicans 139-122.
It was a strong start for the Lakers as they made 11 threes in the first half and shot 67.4%. The 87 points scored were the second-most in franchise history.
After a tough game against the Nuggets, Rui Hachimura bounced back, scoring 21 points on 9-13 shooting. D'Angelo Russell was cooking and scored 30 points. Austin Reeves had 27 points and four assists.
LeBron James provided 14 assists to get 21 points, and Anthony Davis, who was in serious trouble, scored 20 points with six assists and six rebounds.
Both teams were pressing the pace to start the match. Roy's three put the Lakers ahead by six early. AD was using all his dominant energy to get the assist and steal. For the Pelicans, Zion Williamson took over and quickly reached double figures with 10 points.
Neither team played defensively, but both teams were good offensively. Unfortunately, AD committed as many as three fouls and had to be benched with 4:10 left in the first game. The Pelicans had a three-goal lead, but Christian Wood cut that to one with a layup. Brandon Ingram responded with a floater and Roy responded with a layup to put the Lakers within one.
The Pelicans pushed their lead to four, but a layup from LeBron brought them back to within two. At the end of the quarter, the Pelicans led by three goals, 39-36.
The second quarter began with D'Lo drilling four 3-pointers which helped the Lakers take a five-point lead. He was up to 19 points after scoring 14 in a row for the Lakers. The Pelicans were able to weather the Lakers' offensive storm, but a pair of LeBron's 3-pointers pushed the Lakers' lead to 10 points.
There wasn't much defense, so even though the Lakers were able to jump out to a 12-point lead, the Pelicans held on.
Two free throws from AD pushed the Lakers' lead back to 12 after the Pelicans continued to hold on. Both teams suddenly started pushing the pace offensively again as the Lakers led by 13 points to end the half.
The pace of the beginning of the third half was not as crazy as the whole first half. The Pelicans cut the lead to eight because the Lakers looked like they lacked energy. A layup by Zion cut the Lakers' lead to six. The lead was then cut to four because the Lakers couldn't buy a basket.
Roy stopped some of the bleeding with a dunk to push the lead to six. The Pelicans were up 22-8 which put them back in the game. It was an eight-point game after two Pelican free throws. Even though the Pelicans were getting closer, Delo got the ball back up and made two 3-pointers to push the lead back to 13.
Once again, Jackson Hayes had excellent minutes thanks to his energy and activity. The fourth quarter saw the Pelicans stay in the game strong, closing the gap with the Lakers to seven. A layup by Austin helped the Lakers come back by double digits. A pair of CJ McCollum buckets brought the Pelicans to within 11 with 5:31 left in the game.
The Lakers started to heat up again with three minutes left in the game, as a layup from Austin pushed the Lakers' lead to 15. Overtime quickly arrived for both teams and Christian Wood took advantage, scoring five quick points, and the Lakers sealed the game. the win.
Main take:
If the Lakers can mix tonight's offense with a better effort on defense, they will win a lot of games.
D'Lo is very important to the success of this team. Once he gets the ball rolling offensively, the Lakers are hard to stop.
Delo and Austin need to be better defensively.
The Lakers' next game will be Tuesday vs Detroit Pistons 7:30 PM PT.
You can follow Karen on Twitter at @Karen Abkarianz.
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