NEW ORLEANS — One night after the Lakers were clicking on all cylinders in their most impressive performance away from Crypto.com Arena, they looked like a team struggling to find answers on Saturday night against the New Orleans Pelicans.
A team struggling to find its collective energy from the jump after beating the Spurs in San Antonio on Friday night.
A team struggling to find an offensive rhythm – especially with their rotation adjusting again because of injuries.
A team struggling to keep the Pelicans, who were also shorthanded, off the offensive glass for significant parts of Saturday.
But in the end, the Lakers overcame the lulls associated with playing on the second night of a back-to-back, scraping together a 104-99 victory over the Pelicans for their fifth consecutive win to put them at 9-4 on the season.
“It’s good to know that you can execute down the stretch, you can make plays down the stretch no matter what the game calls for,” LeBron James said. “[Saturday] was another one of those moments.”
Anthony Davis (31 points, 14 rebounds) and rookie forward Dalton Knecht (career-high 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting, 5 of 10 on 3-pointers) gave the Lakers the boost they needed in the third to overcome a 10-point halftime deficit after trailing by 15 in the second quarter.
But it was James (21 points, seven rebounds, five assists) providing the Lakers with the late-game shotmaking they needed.
After missing his first five 3-pointers and struggling with his shot for most of the night, the 39-year-old James knocked down a catch-and-shoot to put the Lakers up 98-97 with less than two minutes left.
And one night after playing a more off-ball role in crunch time, James controlled the game late, knocking down another 3 out of a pick and roll to put the Lakers up 101-97 with 37 seconds left.
James missed a pull-up two-pointer on the Lakers’ ensuing possession after Jeremiah Robinson-Earl made a layup to cut the Lakers’ deficit to two. Max Christie backtapped an offensive rebound so the Lakers could maintain possession.
“How about Max Christie? Crash of his life from the corner,” coach JJ Redick said. “He guarded his butt off all night. Not a big offensive night and he gets that offensive rebound tip out to kind of seal the win for us. That was huge.”
With the Pelicans forced to foul late, James split a pair of free throws and Knecht made a pair to seal the win for the Lakers.
“Let’s be honest, it wasn’t his best performance going into crunch time,” Redick said. “And unsurprisingly, he delivered. Beyond just LeBron’s crunch time performance, our group, in some ways, that could have been the [Nov. 4 road loss to the Detroit Pistons] for us. We stayed connected. We kept fighting. The resiliency that we showed was really good.”
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The Pelicans were led by Brandon Ingram’s 32 points, eight rebounds, four rebounds and three steals. New Orleans was without Zion Williamson, Dejounte Murray, Trey Murphy, CJ McCollum, Herbert Jones, Jordan Hawkins and Jose Alvarado.
Davis (15 points) and Knecht (11) combined for 26 of the Lakers’ 29 third-quarter points.
“Every time he shoots the ball, I think is going in,” Davis said of Knecht. “That’s why we get so frustrated and upset with him when he doesn’t shoot. He’s a great player. He can defend, he can shoot, he can put on the floor, he can pass. So he can do it all. But when he have his stretches when he gets hot, it’s a big boost for our team. And we’re able to feed off the energy and most of the time we make a run off of it.
Knecht, who made his second consecutive start and third of the season on Saturday, has averaged 20 points on 63.9% shooting (63.2% on 3s) in his last three games.
“He’s getting comfortable,” Redick said of Knecht. “But I would also say when you are an offensive player, when you’re a guy who is a high-level shooter, getting more extended runs and getting more minutes, you’re naturally just going to be more in the flow of the game.
“I think maybe I called a player or two for him. But he just kind of got it through our offense and our passing and ball movement.”
The Pelicans (4-10) finished with 18 offensive rebounds for 24 second-chance points, with most of those extra opportunities coming in the first half. New Orleans had six offensive rebounds for 10 second-chance points in the second half.
The Lakers finished with 17 offensive rebounds for 28 second-chance points.
“There wasn’t really an adjustment defensively – it was just get the [expletive] ball,” Redick said. “That’s all it was.”
The Lakers will have a couple of days off before kicking off a three-game homestand with an NBA Cup Group Play matchup against the Utah Jazz on Tuesday at Crypto.com Arena.
They opened Group Play with the aforementioned win over the Spurs to stay undefeated in NBA Cup play dating back to last season’s inaugural tournament.