Skip to main content

Anthony Davis excellent in return, but Lakers' postseason hopes on life support after crucial loss to Pelicans


 


The Los Angeles Lakers seemingly got what they needed for the stretch run of the regular season when Anthony Davis and LeBron James both took the floor for Friday's crucial matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans. Needing a win to keep pace with the San Antonio Spurs for the final play-in spot in the Western Conference, Davis played in his first game since injuring his foot in mid-February, while James returned from a two-game absence due to a sprained ankle.


Despite a productive game from both stars, the Lakers fell to the Pelicans, 114-111, making the path to the postseason incredibly difficult over the final five games of the season. Davis looked great from the opening tip, finishing with 23 points, 12 rebounds and six assists on 8-for-17 shooting in 37 minutes -- a healthy dose of playing time for his first game back.



"I felt good," Davis said after the game. "Last four minutes was definitely a struggle. ... But up to that point I felt really good."


Perhaps more importantly, considering his injury history, Davis also took several hard falls throughout the game and was able to continue playing with no visible signs of discomfort. James scored 21 of his 38 points in the third quarter -- the most he's scored in any quarter this season -- but scored just two points in the final frame and airballed a potential game-tying 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded, giving the Lakers another disappointing loss.


James and Davis combined to score six points on 2-for-9 shooting in the fourth quarter.


"It was pretty much a must-win for us, and we didn't get the job done," James said after the game.


At 31-46, the Lakers now trail the San Antonio Spurs by one game with five remaining for each team. The Spurs, however, hold the tiebreaker over the Lakers, which would mean that Los Angeles would have to finish two games better than San Antonio over the final stretch in order to make the play-in. That doesn't seem too far-fetched, but a look at the schedule shows you how difficult of a climb it will be for the Lakers.


The Spurs play the Blazers, Nuggets, Wolves, Warriors and Mavericks to finish out the season. The Lakers face the Nuggets, Suns, Warriors, Thunder and the Nuggets again.


Strange things happen at the end of the regular season with rest and potential tanking to secure a desired playoff spot, so we can't rule out a late Lakers surge. But nothing we've seen from them this season indicates that they're capable of beating some of the best teams in the league, even if they're not at full strength, especially considering the lingering injury concerns for Davis and James and the amount of responsibility they'll be burdened with as the postseason hangs in the balance.


"We have plenty of time to win as many games as we can down the stretch," Lakers coach Frank Vogel said after the game. "We'll see what happens with San Antonio."



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Klay Thompson to sit out Warriors preseason games in Japan as Kerr says he needs more time to ramp-up

  Klay Thompson may have returned healthy to the Golden State Warriors last season, but the scars from his two missed seasons are still quite visible. The Warriors played their first of two preseason games against the Washington Wizards on Friday and will play another on Sunday, but Warriors coach Steve Kerr said that Thompson will not be playing at all during the trip to Japan. "Just feel more comfortable giving him a little more of a ramp up," Kerr said before Friday's victory over Washington. "He's just not quite ready to play at this point just based on where, you know, we're so early in camp. We just want to be safe and make sure he gets a good ramp-up before he plays in games." Typically, so little time to ramp up wouldn't be a problem for a veteran in a preseason context. The games tend to be so low-impact and demand so few minutes out of a team's best players that they can safely jog through them. Stephen Curry and Draymond Green played 1...
Post a Comment
Read more

Shaquille O'Neal says Dennis Rodman was his worst teammate: 'He was a great player, but he made it hard'

  Shaquille O'Neal played for six franchises over a 20-year NBA career. That's a lot of teammates. Speaking on The Big Podcast with Shaq, the four-time champion and Hall of Famer revealed which one of those teammates was the worst.  "Worst teammate? Dennis Rodman," O'Neal said. "He was a great player, but he made it hard. Like when you try to corral the guys together and the people above you [are] letting this one guy do whatever he wants. So we had to be there an hour before the game. He'd come in fifteen minutes before the game eating chicken and rice. While the coaches are talking, he would jump in the shower. Cold shower. Come and give you 15-20 rebounds." O'Neal played with some characters in his time. We know about his beef with Kobe Bryant, who we know wasn't always the easiest teammate to get along with, though Shaq has long expressed regret over the way he and Bryant handled their relationship as young superstars, and eventually, he ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kevin Durant injury update: Nets rule star out for home-and-home vs. Raptors, hopeful for return later in week

Brooklyn Nets star forward Kevin Durant is expected to return to the floor this upcoming week. Head coach Steve Nash says it just won't be against the Raptors, either Monday or Tuesday night in the team's home-and-home against Toronto. Durant has started doing more on-court work recently as he recovers from the sprained MCL he suffered in his left knee last month, and Nash is optimistic about his prognosis moving forward. The former MVP will not play on Monday night against the Toronto Raptors, however.  "I think with Kevin he's been a great healer throughout his career," Nash said Saturday. "So the No. 1 thing is to get him back healthy and feeling secure in his health and his body so he can move and be free. When he's back, obviously he adds a ton to our team on both ends of the floor ... one of the greatest scorers of all time. And we also know he helps us defensively; he gives us more size and length. So he's a big miss for us, and whenever he get...
Post a Comment
Read more