NEW ORLEANS — It was fortunate for the Lakers that they did so much of their work early on Tuesday night. A 40-point lead was feeling frightfully frail toward the end.
But an early burst of record-breaking shooting and 35 points and 17 rebounds from Anthony Davis was enough for the Lakers (34-35) to pull out a 123-108 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans (33-36), a critical win for their postseason hopes, at Smoothie King Center.
Davis was central, going 11 for 18 from the field, but the early going was defined by the Lakers’ 15-for-27 3-point performance in the first half. At the break, they led by 35, providing plenty of cushion to lean on when the Pelicans finally made a push.
“I took a lot of ownership for that game against New York, the way I played,” said Davis, who helped cinch the win by going 7 for 8 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. “I just wanted to come out ultra-aggressive tonight, knowing how important this game was. Everybody did.”
Malik Beasley had a team-best seven 3-pointers, all in the first half, on his way to 24 points. D’Angelo Russell had 17 points and three assists, helping close things out at the end with a critical defensive play.
While all of the Lakers’ games for the rest of the season will be weighed down by Western Conference standings implications, beating the Pelicans was especially important. Their 3-1 season record against New Orleans ensured them a tiebreaker against one of the four teams they were tied with going into the game. They’re now just two games behind the Golden State Warriors and the Clippers, who are fifth and sixth, respectively, and they have a chance Wednesday to improve to .500 for the first time this season if they can beat the last-place Houston Rockets.
“As a group, threes aren’t our only options, but when we’re knocking that down, I feel like I’m the X-factor on the team,” Beasley said. “Like last game (against the New York Knicks), I feel like if I would have made two or three more of my threes, we would have won that game.”
The thrashing started right away: The Lakers sprinted to 14 points before the Pelicans scored at all.
Fresh off a loss to the Knicks when he said the biggest factor was his own performance, Davis came out with a vengeance against his former team. He hit his first five shots, including the Lakers’ first three field goals. Beasley and Russell added on with a pair of 3-pointers, the latter of which Russell celebrated with LeBron James with an “ice in my veins” handshake.
It was a sign of things to come – Beasley especially uncorked quickly after shooting just 5 for 23 from deep in his previous four games. Coach Darvin Ham had told him to be ready to shoot at all times, and he was on Tuesday: on pull-ups, off screens, with an open look or a defender in his face. Beasley was especially effective from the right wing, with five of his seven first-half 3-pointers coming in a cluster about five feet wide.
“There’s players in the league that you can’t over-coach, you can’t overdo it with,” Russell said. “You gotta let him be him. And I think he’s one of the guys in that category. You have to kind of let him be him, and sooner or later he can perform like that.”
With the fuel of 3-point shooting, the Lakers’ offense was incendiary. A 39-22 first-quarter lead quickly raged into a 52-26 stomping. Beasley and Russell could not be stopped, and the Pelicans’ own stars – including former Laker Brandon Ingram returning from an ankle sprain – were woefully subpar. Ingram and C.J. McCollum combined for 13 points on 5-for-18 shooting in the first half.
The Lakers wound up making history: They set a franchise record with their 15 3-pointers in one half (the NBA record is 18). Their lead grew to as much as 40 points early in the third quarter.
Said Beasley: “At one point I was like, ‘Damn, we hot.’”
However, the Lakers left some room for concern after their initial deluge. They haven’t had the luxury of playing with huge leads much as a group, and it showed in sloppy second-half execution. After halftime, they made only three 3-pointers, the faucet abruptly shutting off.
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The fourth quarter nearly careened into disaster: The Lakers made just four field goals in the period, stagnating as their shooting dried up. What saved them was their free-throw shooting: They went an impressive 25 for 28 at the line, with Davis leading the way at 12 for 13. New Orleans shaved the margin to 13 points with five minutes remaining, but Russell managed to pluck out a steal and was fouled, settling the Lakers once again.
“It’s hard to play with a less of that magnitude because you know they’re gonna push back, momentum swings, the consistency of the whistle, it gets kinda choppy,” Ham said. “We just had to stay the course. Told them to stay aggressive. ‘Let’s try to win the free-throw line in the second half.’”
If anything, the game showed the Lakers’ growth from when they played in New Orleans last month. In that game, they botched a 12-point lead and wilted in the fourth quarter. On Tuesday, they utterly wiped the court with the Pelicans in the first half and held on. The Lakers are 9-4 since their team-renovating trades, and they’ve yet to lose back-to-back games.
Perhaps most critically, the Lakers believe in themselves. When they’re playing with confidence, they can shoot the lights out.
“We control our own destiny,” Davis said. “We got to keep winning basketball games.”
The Lakers made a franchise record 15 threes in the first half
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: https://t.co/1pomQZMAZK pic.twitter.com/iikL9W3pxc
— NBA (@NBA) March 15, 2023
Another dominant performance by AD
– 35 points
– 17 rebounds
– W pic.twitter.com/Uv9Tuw4Vav
— NBA (@NBA) March 15, 2023