The New Orleans Pelicans wound up being more trouble than expected, but it was a good night for the Los Angeles Lakers in the playoff standings.
With a 124-108 win over a New Orleans team still missing every major contributor, the Lakers moved back into third place in the Western Conference with a 47-30 record. They leapfrogged the 47-31 Denver Nuggets, who were blown out by the Golden State Warriors.
The Lakers shouldn't have had much trouble with the 21-55 Pelicans with pretty much everyone but Rui Hachimura playing, but it took a while for them to pull away for good. The Pelicans took a lead as large as seven points in the second quarter, and it wasn't until the fourth quarter the Lakers took a double-digit lead and kept it.
That's not to say there weren't highlights, though.
SHOWTIME ๐คฉ
โ Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) April 5, 2025
Austin Reaves goes behind the back and finds LeBron for the OOP ๐ฎโ๐จ
(via @NBATV)pic.twitter.com/cH4l9NenZ4
It was a strong enough night for the Lakers that LeBron James had 27 points and finished third on his own team in scoring. Luka Donฤiฤ and Austin Reaves each posted 30-point games and a combined 13 assists. Reaves also set a Lakers franchise record with 15 3-pointers in his past two games.
Jose Alvarado, appearing to play through some discomfort, led the Pelicans with 27 points on 10-of-21 shooting
The bigger test for the Lakers will be Sunday, when they go on the road to face the NBA-leading Oklahoma City Thunder.
Warriors blow out short-handed Nuggets, Clippers do the same to short-handed Mavericks
Elsewhere in the Western Conference, the two teams book-ending the Lakers in the West standings entering Friday played each other. Despite playing on the second half of a back-to-back, the Warriors didn't have much trouble with the Nuggets.
