For the Lakers (31-43), it was a tale of two halves Sunday night in New Orleans. The team looked on the verge of picking up a key victory for their playoff push but a poor effort in the second half led to the 116-108 loss at the hands of the Pelicans.
The Purple and Gold were cooking from the opening tip and quickly grabbed a 12-0 lead thanks to an energetic LeBron James, who scored 10 of those points on his own.
From then on, it was all Lake Show. L.A. would finish the first half 25-of-37 from the field (11-of-18 from three) and take a 20-point lead in what could be described as a flawless opening 24 minutes.
New Orleans surged in the third frame and outscored Los Angeles 41-25, to cut the deficit down to only four. Poor shooting and a complete breakdown in their gameplay proved to be the deciding factor for the Lakers who finished the final quarter with 14 points scored on 6-of-21 from the field.
The good news: LeBron James capped off his energetic start with 39 points on the night to go along with nine rebounds and five assists. The King once again etched his name amongst the league’s best.
On his sixth field goal of the night, James became the second player in NBA history to score 37,000 career points and is the youngest player to reach every round number milestone in points (now has 37,024 points and counting). Additionally, with his 13th made FG, LeBron passed Karl Malone for second on the NBA’s all-time field goals made list (now has 13,530 FGM and counting).
Malik Monk was the second highest scorer with 23 points on top of six assists and Russell Westbrook contributed 18 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
The bad news: LeBron did appear to tweak his ankle at the beginning of the second quarter after stepping on the foot of the Pelicans’ Jaxson Hayes trying to position himself for a rebound.
James remained in the game and played through but limped into his postgame media session, according to Mike Trudell.
An update on the extent of the injury will be provided before Monday’s game but James said postgame, “it feels horrible and has no idea how I finished the game.”
L.A. is now 10th in the West with only a one game lead over the San Antonio Spurs. The team will set its sights to the Monday night matchup in Dallas. With only eight games remaining, there is no margin for error as every contest and a need for wins is pivotal.