On April 17, Beijing time, the Western Conference play-offs officially began, and the Pelicans faced the menacing Lakers at home. In the final game of the regular season, the Lakers defeated the Pelicans by 16 points, successfully retaining the eighth place in the West, while also dragging the Pelicans into the play-in quagmire. In this game, the Lakers' starting lineup played well and made an indispensable contribution to the victory. Among them, James was particularly eye-catching, and he managed to pick up a triple-double with 28 points, 11 rebounds and 17 assists. Not to be outdone, he contributed 30 points and 11 rebounds. Russell and Reaves scored 19 and 20 points, respectively, showing excellent scoring ability. Hachimura, who gradually emerged at the end of the season, also handed over comprehensive statistics of 11 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. It's fair to say that the Lakers' starting lineup was almost all in the best shape in this game.
On the bench, the Lakers also have good quality. With Prince and Dinwiddie at the helm, they provide the team with consistent scoring and defensive prowess. And Vincent, who has returned from injury, has become a potential X-factor for the Lakers. If he can regain his excellent form during his time with the Heat, the Lakers will not be to be underestimated, despite their relatively low ranking. It is worth mentioning that before the game, ESPN organized a team of NBA experts to predict the results of the game between the Lakers and the Pelicans, and 10 of the 13 experts believed that the Lakers would finally win the game and advance to the playoffs as the seventh seed in the West, facing the Nuggets in the first round!
For the Pelicans, the last game of the finale became their Battle of Waterloo. Before losing to the Lakers, they had secured sixth place in the West with a four-game winning streak. However, in this crucial finale, they were unable to withstand the Lakers' offensive and eventually lost and fell into the play-in tournament. In this game, although McCollum had a team-high 25 points and seven assists, Zion's performance was not as good as it could be, he only made 4 of 13 shots, and only had 12 points and eight rebounds. Ingram, who had been out for nearly a month, returned but only played 23 minutes due to time constraints, but he still showed good form, scoring 13 points and five rebounds. The Pelicans can play the sixth and seventh places in the West in the mighty West, which shows that they have good strength, but they lack experience and playoff-level talent, which is their shortcoming. In this game, both sides are the strongest lineups, Lakers James Mei, Reaves, Russell, and eight-inch starters, Pelicans Zion, Yingge, Wallan, Jones and CJ starts.
At the beginning of the first quarter of the game, the Pelicans showed a strong desire to attack at the beginning, Yingge missed the shot, Varland scored a rebound, Zion scored an easy dunk inside, and then Reaves hit a 3-point to break the game, but came back to Ingram to respond with a 3-point. Russell made a foul free throw, Varland singled a thick eyebrow, James hit a 3-pointer, and Yingge made a jumper from the free throw line. Then the two teams fell into a struggle, the score once staggered lead, the first quarter of the game with 5 minutes and 10 seconds left, the Lakers led the Pelicans 21-20, the game entered a forced timeout stage, I never thought that this timeout destroyed the Lakers' hand, the game came back to the court suddenly changed, Nance hit a 3-pointer, Murphy jumped to the basket, Zion hit the basket, the Pelicans played a wave of 7-0 small climax, Russell shot + chased 3 points, helped the Lakers stabilize the situation, but the Pelicans' offensive momentum is still very strong, Zion dunked, Jones hit a three-pointer to finish the first quarter and give the Pelicans an eight-point lead over the Lakers at 34-26.
In the second quarter of the game, Zion hit a shot at the beginning, Vincent who came off the bench showed his value, hit a 3-point shot on the offensive end, fell to the ground on the defensive end to grab the ball, assisted James to make a layup, and then Prince also contributed a steal, Hayes quickly dunked, the Pelicans' offense came to a standstill, and made mistakes again and again, Russell hit a shot, Prince scored 3 points, Vincent scored three points again, and the Lakers overtook the score! The Pelicans don't have many ways to attack, they can only rely on Zion's body to impact the inside, just establish a little advantage, Hachimura received the ball at the top of the arc and scored 3 points, and the silent Yingge European step layup scored, however, he was crushed by James tank when he came back, and then James scored a layup past Wallan, and scored 4 points alone. The Pelicans were timid on offense, while the Lakers' players were decisive in their shots, Prince scored 3 points, Reaves and James made foul free throws one after another, and in the blink of an eye, the Lakers established a 14-point advantage. At the end of the second quarter, James scored another 2 points on free throws, and Yingge and Zion teamed up to score 6 points. At halftime, the Pelicans trailed the Lakers by 10 points, 50-60!
In the first half of the game, the reason why the Lakers were able to turn the tables in the second quarter was not really relied on by James, nor by thick eyebrows, but by Vincent, Prince and Russell, Vincent's two 3-pointers, the knife was fatal, and a steal made the Pelicans worse, Prince showed his 3D true colors on offense and defense, and the two scored a total of 12 points in the connecting section, which was definitely unexpected by the Lakers and Pelicans coaching staff. In addition, Russell incarnated the team's real thigh in this game, shooting 5-of-8 from the field in the second quarter, 3-of-5 from 3-pointers, and scoring 15 points and 6 assists. The Pelicans actually made changes here, like Zion frantically using his body to impact the interior and scored 20 points in two quarters, but the Pelicans' 3 points did not open, and the shooting rate of 4 of 16 shots compared to the Lakers' 20 shots and 10 shots is obviously difficult to match the Lakers' offensive efficiency. If the Pelicans want to reverse, they obviously need Zion to maintain their impact on the inside, and at the same time, they need the Pelicans' shooters to grasp the three-point crosshairs, but this is really difficult for the Pelicans' young players!