Tonight the Los Angeles Lakers welcome the New Orleans Pelicans into town as the Lakers finish their five-game homestand. The Lakers are coming off a double digit loss to the Boston Celtics on Friday night. The Pelicans are looking for their first win since acquiring All-Star center, DeMarcus Cousins. Check out our game recap:
1st Quarter
The Lakers started the game with their usual lineup of D’Angelo Russell, Nick Young, Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle, and Tarik Black. The Pelicans countered with Jrue Holiday, Hollis Thompson, Solomon Hill, Demarcus Cousins, and Anthony Davis.
Ingram got the Lakers going early by knocking down a three-pointer off a pass from Russell for the early 3-0 lead. After the Pelicans scored the next four points, Young received a handoff from Randle and threw down a thunderous slam dunk. Randle followed with a score when he dribbled his way into the lane and finished a layup.
After minutes of terrible basketball by both teams, Russell and Young scored on back-to-back possessions to give the Lakers three point lead with four minutes left in the quarter. Cousins responded with a three of his own on the Pelicans next possession.
E’Twaun Moore entered the game for the Pelicans and scored seven straight points to give them an eight point advantage. New Orleans finished the quarter on a 8-2 run to take 26-20 lead.
2nd Quarter
Corey Brewer started off the quarter with a midrange jumper to bring the Lakers within four points. Tyler Ennis, who started the quarter, banked home a three-pointer for the Lakers to ignite a little spark. The Lakers took the lead when Jordan Clarkson found Timofey Mozgov cutting to the basket and finished with a slam dunk.
The Lakers delivered a nice sequence of plays when Brewer blocked a layup attempt by Tim Frazier and finished the with another Ennis three-pointer on the offensive end. After the Pelicans called a timeout Cousins slammed home an assist of a Moore pass to stop a 14-0 Lakers run.
Cousins started to assert himself offensively as he scored on two straight possessions to bring the Pelicans within one point with fewer than six minutes to play in the quarter. Coming out of a Lakers timeout, Young scored back-to-back three-pointers to halt the Pelicans momentum.
Ingram scored on a nice layup attempt for his fifth point to the evening and on the next possession, Randle slammed home a pass from Russell. After a pair of free throws by Cousins, Russell worked his way into the paint and scored a midrange jumper.
As the quarter came to a close Randle found a cutting Ingram who slammed the ball home. The Lakers used 39 points in the quarter to take a 59-55 lead into halftime.
3rd Quarter
The quarter began real sloppy for both teams. Neither could get anything going offensively as shots struggled to fall and turnovers made things difficult. The Pelicans briefly regained the lead but Black responded with an and-one for the Lakers.
Davis and Cousins scored on back-to-back possessions for New Orleans to force a timeout midway through the quarter. Ingram knocked down his second three-pointer of the game when Clarkson found him spotted up in the corner.
The Pelicans increased their lead to five points when Hill and Holiday scored on close baskets. After the Lakers turned the ball over, Hill made them pay by hitting a three-pointer to give them a 75-67 lead. Clarkson finally stopped the bleeding as a scored a floater over the taller Pelican’s player.
Davis started to get heat up as he knocked down two consecutive jumpers, giving him 25 points on the night so far. The third quarter was not a good one for LA as they only scored 14 points and saw their halftime lead turn into a 10-point deficit heading into the final quarter.
The Lakers trailed the Pelicans after the third quarter, 83-73.
4th Quarter
The Pelicans began the quarter with two quick baskets to extend their lead to 14 points. The Lakers continued struggle on the offensive end as turnovers has made it difficult to get any sort of rhythm on that side of the ball.
The Lakers had a chance to get their deficit down to single digits but Clarkson turned the ball over, which led to Davis scoring an and-one to extend the Pelicans lead to 12 points. Out of a timeout, Russell connected on a short jumper but Holiday responded with one of his own on the next possession.
Nick Young ignited a last chance comeback effort as he drilled a three-pointer and intercepted a pass and scored a difficult layup to cut the Lakers deficit to seven points with four minutes remaining. After the Pelicans missed a three-point attempt, Russell connected with back-to-back triples to cut the deficit one-point.
The Lakers tied the game at 97-97 when Randle hit one-of-two free throws, but on the next Pelicans possessions Davis hit a midrange jumper. Holiday knocked down a clutch three-pointer to give New Orleans a five-point lead with 45 seconds remaining.
The Lakers last ditch effort comes up short as they lose 105-97 to the Pelicans.
