On April 15, Beijing time, the Lakers defeated the Pelicans 124-108 to lock up the eighth position, thus obtaining "two lives" in the play-offs.
In this game, the 39-year-old LeBron James scored 28 points, 11 rebounds, 17 assists and 5 steals, which was his fifth time this season and the 112th triple-double of his career.
The above is only the surface, and James's intention is not here, but has deeper considerations.
First of all, this game is what the Lakers must win, not to mention the question of whether the Lakers will fall to 9th and 10th if they lose this game, if the Lakers lose this game, the Pelicans will rise to sixth in the West, and the Suns will fall to seventh in the West.
Although the triumvirate combination of Durant + Booker + Beal has not sparked much this season, in a life-and-death game, two of these two outbursts are also terrible, and the variables are too great.
Secondly, this game must be a big win, because once the game is won, the first round of the play-offs against the Pelicans is a sure thing, if the game is played back and forth, it will give the Pelicans confidence, and winning this game (a good place for Amway to watch the game: "link") will establish a certain psychological advantage for the Lakers.
Therefore, at the beginning of the game, James took the initiative to ask for help and defend against the opponent's big killer "Fat Tiger", which is rare for James this season, after all, he has received a lot of criticism on the defensive end this season.
James can be regarded as fighting hard in this game, the purpose is to "kill people and punish the heart", destroy the self-confidence of the fat tiger Zion, and beat a 39-year-old guy who can't move, what to eat? .
This season, the Lakers and Pelicans have played each other a total of 4 times, 3-1, James scored 30+5+8, 34+5+8, 21+4+14, 28+11+17, averaging 28.2 points, 6.2 rebounds and 11.7 assists per game, and the performance completely crushed Zion's average of 20.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game.
Judging from the current situation, the Lakers still have a certain advantage over the Pelicans, and there is a high probability that they will not need a "second life".
If the Lakers beat the Pelicans in the first round of the playoffs, then the Lakers will face the Nuggets in the first round, which may not be good news for the Lakers, because in the playoffs last year, the Lakers were just swept by the Nuggets, and it seems that there is nothing they can do with the Nuggets.