Swooning Lakers face Pelicans in play-in roulette
The Los Angeles Lakers and the New Orleans Pelicans both came out of the All-Star Break on Friday night looking to strengthen their postseason prospects.
The Lakers lost to the Clippers, weakening their hold on the third of four play-in spots. The Pelicans won at Phoenix, moving within one game of the final play-in spot.
The Lakers and the Pelicans will meet Sunday night in Los Angeles.
“It’s our last 20-plus games, every game is important,” LeBron James said after scoring 21 points but making just 6 of 18 shots in the 105-102 loss to their crosstown rivals. “For us to go down in the fashion that we went down … we definitely need to play better basketball to where we’re not building deficits like that early on.”
The Lakers missed their first 10 shots and fell behind by as many as 16 points in the first half. They rallied to take a six-point lead at the end of three quarters but fell behind again and in the final seconds, James’…