Although James and Westbrook both ushered in milestones, the Lakers lost, and in the key battle with the Pelicans, the Lakers' loss was a double blow.
The Lakers lose
Knowing that today's game is important, the Lakers showed their determination to win from the beginning, james played an exemplary role, he scored 10 points, plus Howard's 2 points, the Lakers started 12-0. The Pelicans began to fight back under McCollum, but were suppressed by the Lakers, who led 31-23 in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Lakers came with another wave of 13-0, extending the point difference to 16 points, and then the Lakers continued to expand their advantage in the fight with the Pelicans, and at the end of the half, they led by 20 points at 69-49.
In the third quarter, the storm suddenly changed, the Pelicans played momentum, constantly narrowing the point gap, they played 41-25 in this quarter, only 4 points behind the Lakers at the end of the third quarter.
In the last quarter, the Lakers old general Ingram stood up, and he used his technical characteristics to play continuously. Help the Pelicans lead the Lakers by six points with 2.1/2 minutes left in the game. Although the Lakers later tried to catch up, they ultimately failed, and in the end they lost the game 108-116.
James scored 39 points
In this game, James still carried the Lakers' offensive responsibility on his shoulders, scoring 39 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists in the whole game. At the same time, in this game, he also achieved 37,000 points, becoming the second person in history and the youngest player with 37,000 points.
Not only James, but Also Westbrook reached a milestone in this game, and he scored more points after this game than James' once-good partner Wade.
But the two superstars turned the milestone into mileage sadness, and also let the Lakers give up the ninth place in the West that they have always maintained to the Pelicans, and they fell to the tenth place in the West, and the prospect of the playoffs is in jeopardy.
Tenth in the West
Prior to this game, the Lakers were ninth in the West and the Pelicans were tenth in the West. After this game, the Pelicans overtook the Lakers to become the ninth in the West. Although the Pelicans are only 0.5 wins ahead of the Lakers, even if the Lakers have the same winning percentage as the Pelicans, they can only rank behind the Pelicans, because the Pelicans have the advantage in the win-loss relationship with the Lakers.
At the same time, the eleventh Spurs in the West are also a threat to the Lakers, and the Spurs are only 1 win away from the Lakers at present, and it is possible to catch up with the Lakers at any time.
The lakers' current situation is very serious, if their next opponents do not release water, the Lakers' remaining 8 games, want to win 3 games are somewhat difficult.
And the Spurs will be on some teams that have given up the playoffs, or have no need to compete for the ranking of the playoff teams, so the winning rate behind the Spurs will be relatively high, so that the Lakers are completely likely to be overtaken by the Spurs and fall to the eleventh place in the West, thus losing the qualification for the playoffs, losing the qualification for the playoffs, which means that the Lakers will not qualify for the playoffs in advance.