SUMMARY
- LeBron James and the Lakers won against the Pelicans in the Play-In Tournament to advance into the playoffs.
- LA will be facing the defending champions, the Nuggets during the opening round of the playoffs.
LeBron James did a phenomenal job leading the Los Angeles Lakers past the Play-In Tournament against the New Orleans Pelicans. NOLA only managed to get a double-digit lead once throughout the entire game during the second quarter. LA ended up controlling the pace for the rest of the game. By the end of the matchup, the Pelicans were able to tie the score due to Zion Williamson’s incredible strength to power through defenders.
Zion Williamson slammed a towel in frustration and went back to the locker room with an apparent injury after scoring his 40th point on this play 👇 pic.twitter.com/iZqUlFxPF0
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 17, 2024
Unfortunately, Williamson got injured late in the fourth quarter and it gave the Lakers a close win. Zion was their best offensive player of the night as he recorded a season-high 40 points during the game. NOLA’s bench stepped up to the plate and scored 32 points. While they will be revisiting the Play-Ins against the Sacramento Kings, LA proudly advanced into the first round of the playoffs.
LeBron James doesn’t think Lakers will have much rest ahead of the Nuggets matchup
Last season, the Lakers met the Denver Nuggets during the Western Conference Finals. They played against much easier matchups with the Golden State Warriors and Memphis Grizzlies in the series leading up to the WCF. This time, the Lakers will be facing the Nuggets quite early in the playoffs and things are bound to get extremely competitive between the challenger and the defending champions.
LeBron James spoke about facing the Nuggets in the first round by saying, “It’s the defending champions. You know, we understand how difficult of a matchup it’s been versus them. They’re going to make it tough on [us], we got to try to make it tough on them. You know, we won’t get an opportunity to rest tonight. Maybe rest tomorrow a little bit and then get back into the books and get ready for the first-round series. That’s going to be extremely tough on us.” It certainly isn’t going to be an easy task facing defending champions with an MVP frontrunner by the first round.
The Lakers become the best clutch team in the NBA
The Lakers vs Pelicans game was definitely a close call, however, LeBron James secured the lead with two clutch free throws. It would have been a major problem had Williamson not gotten injured. After the injury, he walked directly into the locker room with a great sense of frustration.
LEBRON JAMES TONIGHT:
23 PTS
9 REB
9 AST
3 STL
2 BLKLAKERS ARE NOW THE 7TH SEED AND WILL FACE DENVER IN THE 1ST ROUND 👀🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/fo099Ag3Rx
— BronMuse (@BronMuse) April 17, 2024
But LA is slowly creeping up on some solid statistical numbers after their win against the Pelicans. According to GameFAQs, the Lakers have won 73% of their 33 clutch games this season. They’ve won more clutch games than the Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, Boston Celtics, and Oklahoma City Thunder. And the Lakers hold the record of the best clutch team in the NBA this season.