In usual circumstances, the Lakers wouldn’t have played a competitive game against the Pelicans on Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Because in most seasons, a team like the Pelicans, who entered the matchup with the league’s sixth-worst record, would be tanking with the hopes of falling in the standings to secure the best possible draft lottery odds.
But this season hasn’t been typical, with the Pelicans, who won six of their last nine games entering Tuesday, still looking to be competitive in light of trading away their 2026 first-round pick during a highly-scrutinized transaction that moved them up in the 2025 draft to select rookie big man Derik Queen at No. 13.
So the Lakers had to fight all the way to the end for the 110-101 victory over the Pelicans.
“We knew we weren’t playing against their record,” LeBron James said. “It’s the first time they’ve been whole in quite awhile. And we know when they’ve been whole what kind of team they’ve been. We didn’t come in with the notion that we were playing against their record. We came in with the notion that we were playing a very athletic team that’s been playing exceptional basketball of late.”
The Lakers came back from an eight-point deficit and closed the game on a 24-7 run to seal the victory.
“Frankly, that’s not a win we’ve had since probably November,” Coach JJ Redick said. “Where we’re down. A lot of those early wins when we started 15-4, we had a number of double-digit deficits in the second half, and just stuck with it and kept playing. It was a good win for our group to be able to do that again.
Luka Doncic led the Lakers with 24 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. James had 21 points, seven assists and seven rebounds.
What it means
The Lakers are on their third three-game winning streak since December.
They moved to 37-24 on the season, getting closer to having an identical home record (18-12) as road record (19-12).
Turning point
When after falling behind 94-86, the Lakers ran Stack 2 against the Pelicans’ hedging defense to open up a dunk for Jaxson Hayes assisted by Doncic, which started the Lakers’ late run.
Austin Reaves, who struggled with his shot for most of Tuesday (15 points on 4-of-15 shooting) made a 3-pointer with 5:04 left to give the Lakers a 96-94 lead. They led for the remainder of the game.
MVP: Marcus Smart
His 3-of-9 shooting doesn’t stand out.
But the veteran guard made the dagger 3-point to put the Lakers up 105-98 with 1:34 left.
And he made multiple game-changing defensive plays that ignited the Lakers’ offense.
“Smart was incredible,” Redick said. “Him and Jaxson [Hayes] in the second half, when we got him back in the game defensively, they helped us win the game. They changed the game.”
Smart finished with 10 points, seven assists, four steals, three blocked shots and three rebounds, and had the best individual plus/minus among the starters.
Stat of the game: 22
That was the number of turnovers the Lakers committed against the Pelicans.
It was the 11th time they had at least 20 giveaways, with the Lakers entering Tuesday 4-6 in games they had at least 20 turnovers.
Notably, it was just the third time the Lakers had at least 20 turnovers in a game Doncic, LeBron and Reaves all played, with the last one being the Feb. 5 win over the 76ers that Doncic left at halftime during.
The Dec. 1 loss to the Suns was the last time the Lakers had 20 turnovers in a game all three star players finished.
Up next
The Lakers will kick off their upcoming back-to-back in Denver when they play the Nuggets on Thursday night at Ball Arena.
They’ll close out the back-to-back on Friday against the Pacers at Crypto.com Arena, which will kick off a five-game homestand.
