But Again
CJ McCollum scored 32 points, Brandon Ingram added 29 against his quondam team and the New Orleans Pelicans spoiled Anthony Davis' return from injury with another quaternary-quarter rally in a 114-111 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Fri night.
Jonas Valanciunas had 17 points and 12 rebounds for the 9th-place Pelicans, who won for the 6th fourth dimension in viii games while dealing the second major accident in v days to the Lakers' hopes of squeaking into the play-in tournament.
New Orleans beat Los Angeles 116-108 at habitation concluding weekend afterward rallying from a 23-bespeak deficit, and the Pelicans swept the season series with this comeback on the road.
LeBron James missed a iii-pointer at the cablegram and scored only two of his 38 points in the fourth quarter for the Lakers (31-46), who have lost five straight and 15 of 19 to fall one game behind tenth-place San Antonio (32-45), which holds the tiebreaker.
Davis had 23 points, 12 rebounds and six assists in his return from a 6-week injury absence since Feb. xvi, just the 8-time All-Star's presence wasn't enough to beat his former team. The Lakers now face up long odds simply to get by the Spurs for a i-game shot at the Pelicans, since four of LA's final v games are against playoff-bound opponents.
New Orleans trailed for near of the fourth quarter, just Valanciunas hit a tying 3-arrow with 2:52 to play. After Davis missed a floater, Ingram put the Pelicans alee 110-108 on a fadeaway jumper.
Avery Bradley's 3-pointer with 15.viii seconds left trimmed New Orleans' lead to 112-111. McCollum hit two free throws, and James' triple-clutch 3-point attempt amid double coverage didn't go in at the horn.
Local
Local news from across Southern California
Davis missed the previous 18 games with a sprained foot during his second lengthy injury absence of the year. Davis had been hurt for 39 games and good for you for 37 this season, his second directly with major injury problems.
Los Angeles went four-14 in Davis' most recent absenteeism, their disappointing flavour turning into a potentially humiliating i. James too missed three of the previous four games with a swollen talocrural joint, but he elected to play through the pain Friday with Davis' render.
That meant Davis, James and Russell Westbrook played together for only the 21st fourth dimension in the Lakers' 77 games this flavour — and just the sixth time since Dec. 17. Injuries have been the leading — just hardly the but — cistron in Los Angeles' descent from a likely championship contender to a borderline playoff team.
Malik Monk scored 13 points for the Lakers.
Although these teams are a combined 24 games below .500, the game had a playoff feel from the opening minutes when Jaxson Hayes delivered a difficult foul to stop James on a fast break. Davis ran the length of the court to exchange words with Hayes over the flagrant foul.
James scored 21 points in the third quarter, but Ingram answered with 15 in the period, and the Lakers only led 87-86 heading to the 4th.
TIP-INS
Pelicans: Hayes dunked with 36 seconds left in the commencement one-half, but the points were taken off the lath post-obit video review after the halftime buzzer considering Hayes didn't beat the shot clock. ... Four starters played at least 36 minutes.
Lakers: Davis crossed the courtroom to say something to a fan in the 2nd row early on in the fourth quarter later New Orleans called a timeout when LA took a six-point atomic number 82. The fan, who wore a Kobe jersey, was escorted abroad from his seat past security. ... Carmelo Anthony was unavailable due to a non-COVID illness.
OH YEAH Real FUNNY
James got into the spirit of the holiday Th morn with a straight-faced tweet: "I'one thousand out for the season officially. Encounter y'all in the autumn."
James and the Lakers didn't acknowledge the joke, just at least James apparently warned Frank Vogel when he sent out the tweet. The coach declined to say whether he idea it was funny.
"I would take guessed information technology was an April Fool'south even if I hadn't known information technology was an Apr Fool'south," Vogel said.
Upwards Adjacent
Pelicans: At Clippers on Sunday.
Lakers: Host Nuggets on Sunday.
Source: https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/sports/lebron-james-and-anthony-davis-return-but-lakers-lose-again-to-pelicans-114-111/2861333/
0 Response to "But Again"
Post a Comment