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Lakers Highlights: Sharpshooting LA Decimates Pelicans At Home

And a buyout candidate gets courted courtside.
Alex Kirschenbaum|
Lakers Highlights: Sharpshooting LA Decimates Pelicans At Home
Lakers Highlights: Sharpshooting LA Decimates Pelicans At Home

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Los Angeles Lakers

A day removed from a poignant Kobe Bryant bronze statue unveiling ceremony, an inactive NBA trade deadline, and a disappointing loss to the best team in the league, your Los Angeles Lakers bounced back in a big way against the visiting New Orleans Pelicans, beating them 139-122 at home.

With the win, ninth-seeded Los Angeles, a team with two All-Stars, improves to a 28-26 overall record, while sixth-seeded New Orleans, a team with zero All-Stars, falls to a still-better 30-22 record.

Buoyed by a red-hot D'Angelo Russell, the Lakers submitted their most prolific opening half of the year, and their second-highest-scoring half in team history. LA outscored New Orleans 87-74 in the first two frames. 

Russell's 21 first-half points led the charge, but all five LA starters (this was Darvin Ham's D-Lo/Austin Reaves/LeBron James/Rui Hachimura/Anthony Davis lineup) notched double digits against a disengaged Pellies D. 

At the break, the Lakers as a team had posted a bonkers (and unsustainable) .674/.550/.857 slash line.

Things took a bit of a turn the third frame. A 12-2 Pelicans scoring run early on, propelled by frontcourt stalwarts Zion Williamson and Jonas Valanciunas, got New Orleans within two possessions. New Orleans eventually got within three points of Los Angeles midway through the quarter, 99-96, before Russell got hot again. 

All-Stars Anthony Davis and LeBron James helped a bit, too. All told, LA closed out the period on a 16-6 tear.

New Orleans promptly went on yet another run at the top of the fourth, outscoring Los Angeles 9-5, thanks in large part to their large frontcourt. A balanced attack from the Lakers' starters put the game away for good. Darvin Ham finally pulled his starters with 2:33 remaining in regulation, and Los Angeles up 132-117.

D-Lo finished with a team-leading 30 points on 9-of-19 shooting overall (6-of-13 from long range) and 6-of-6 shooting from the foul line along with five assists, two rebounds and a steal. 

All five LA starters finished with 20 or more points on 46% shooting from the field or better. As a team, the Lakers made 55.7% of their field goals and 45.2% of their 31 triple tries, along with 84.4% shooting from the charity stripe. 

I'm loving this starting five -- essentially last year's group down the home stretch, with the more offensively versatile Rui Hachimura in for Jarred Vanderbilt. It does seem like Hachimura, who's got athletic upside for days, is finally putting things together on defense, too:

An interesting side note: Lakers GM Rob Pelinka was spotted courtside, sitting next to rumored Los Angeles buyout candidate Spencer Dinwiddie and his agent. Will we finally be getting an actual backup point guard for D'Angelo Russell this season? Time will tell...

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Alex Kirschenbaum
ALEX KIRSCHENBAUM

Currently also a scribe for Newsweek, Hoops Rumors, The Sporting News and "Gremlins" director Joe Dante's film site Trailers From Hell, Alex is an alum of Men's Journal, Grizzlies fan site Grizzly Bear Blues, and Bulls fan sites Blog-A-Bull and Pippen Ain't Easy, among others.

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