NEW ORLEANS — Despite the New Orleans Pelicans’ late comeback attempt, the Lakers held on to beat the Pelicans 110-106 in Tuesday’s Play-In Tournament game to clinch the No. 7 seed and their spot in the playoffs.
Their reward: a first-round matchup against the No. 2 seed Denver Nuggets – the defending NBA champions that swept the Lakers, 4-0, in last spring’s Western Conference finals.
Even before they beat the Pelicans, few people outside of the Lakers’ organization gave them a chance to beat the Nuggets in a playoff series.
The Lakers have dropped the last eight matchups to the Nuggets dating back to January 2023, including Denver winning all three matchups this past regular season.
But the lack of external belief in the Lakers got to the point where some pundits leading into Tuesday’s game suggested that the Lakers should have purposely lost to the Pelicans to avoid a series with the Nuggets and set up a second play-in game on Friday. In this scenario, the Lakers would have hosted the winner of Tuesday evening’s Sacramento Kings-Golden State Warriors play-in game (the Kings won).
The winner of that hypothetical Lakers-Kings play-in game at Crypto.com Arena would have advanced to a first-round matchup against the top-seed Oklahoma City Thunder, while the loser’s season would be over.
Coach Darvin Ham was baffled after Tuesday’s game when a reporter mentioned the risky scenario.
“There was a report of what?” Ham responded to the reporter who brought up the scenario. “Insane asylum sources say?”
When the reporter clarified that the scenario wasn’t sourced information and merely external conversations leading into Tuesday, Ham responded, “OK. Someone that just got out of the insane asylum. OK, I got you.”
The Lakers-Nuggets best-of-seven series will tip off on Saturday at Ball Arena in Denver (5:30 PT).
“Extremely [excited],” Ham said. “It’s an opportunity. It’s back to 0-0. Obviously, they’ve had a ton of success against our ballclub but there’s always a new day. And my staff and I have already been putting in the groundwork together for that gameplan and we’ll get together [Wednesday]. Other guys on the team will get the day off but we’ll start the work process of building out the gameplan and go out there and give it our best shot. That’s all that we can do.
“We feel comfortable though. We like where we are, we like where the spirit of our group is. Everybody is chipping in and pitching in, excited about this challenge, this opportunity. And respect to Denver, they’re a hell of a ballclub. There’s a reason why they’re defending champs. But we like our chances.”
Star forward LeBron James echoed Ham’s sentiments.
“It’s the defending champion,” James said. “They know what it takes. They know how to win. They’ve been extremely dominant on their home floor over the last few years. They’ve got an MVP on their team. They’ve got a closer on their team. They’ve got high-level players, high-IQ players. And they’ve got a hell of a coach.
“So we have to play mistake-free basketball. Make it tough on them. They’re gonna try to make it tough on us, obviously. But if we can play as great of a game as we can play, and they’re gonna play as great of a game as they play, it’s gonna come down to one or two possessions. And we’ll see who executes then.”
The three days between Tuesday’s victory and the start of the first-round series will also give Anthony Davis more time to treat the ailment. He’s been dealing with back spasms since Sunday’s win over the Pelicans to close out the regular season.
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“A lot of the jump hook stuff I was feeling it,” Davis said postgame Tuesday. “Back spasms, it’s tough. I’m trying to keep it as loose as possible and constant moving and things like that, twisting and turning and things like that kind of limited me a little bit but I’m still trying to go out there and be effective and help the team win. But I feel like I’ll be 100% as far as the back come Saturday.”
Davis and James struggled from the field on Tuesday, combining for 43 points on 12-for-36 shooting, meaning multiple role players needed to step up to deliver the win.
It’s a recipe the Lakers feel can be repeated in the playoffs.
“It’s been huge for us,” Ham said. “We know we have five capable guys in that starting lineup. And most times, we finish the game with that lineup, who all are high-level playmakers.