Who: Los Angeles Lakers (29-29) @ New Orleans Pelicans (26-34)
When: Saturday, Feb. 23; 4 p.m. PST; Smoothie King Center
Where: Spectrum SportsNet
Coming off of a thrilling comeback win over the Houston Rockets on Thursday, the Lakers will visit the Pelicans with the hopes of starting a winning streak.
Even with a win over Houston on Thursday, the Lakers are still three games back from the eighth seed in the Western Conference. However, with the Sacramento Kings playing the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday and the Clippers playing the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, that gap could get substantially smaller over the next few days.
In order fr any of those games to be meaningful, though, the Lakers need to win on Saturday. Luckily, they’ll have one big thing going in their favor.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Pelicans All-Star Anthony Davis will rest against the Lakers. In his last meeting with the Lakers, Davis scored a game-high 30 points to go along with 20 rebounds and five assists. It’s safe to say they were relieved not see him on the active roster.
The Pelicans might have enough to talent in their starting lineup with Jrue Holiday and Julius Randle to make things interesting, but their bench will almost surely to struggle to keep up with the Lakers’ second unit. Don’t be surprised if this game is decided by the second quarter.
