\u201cWell, we knew we weren\u2019t playing against their record tonight,\u201d said LeBron James, who was one of the starters to score in double figures with 21 points to go along with seven rebounds, seven assists and two blocks. But he also had five turnovers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the first time they\u2019ve been whole in quite a while,\u201d James, who was eight-for-12 from the field, continued. \u201cAnd we know when they\u2019ve been whole what kind of team they\u2019ve been. So, we came in with that mindset, understanding what kind of team we were playing and they won their last four out of five before tonight, or something like that. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut we didn\u2019t come in with the notion that we were playing against their record. We came in with the notion that we were playing a very athletic team that\u2019s been playing exceptional basketball of late.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lakers have been a better team as of late as well, winning their third straight game after losing three straight.<\/p>\n
They won this one over the Pelicans with just enough offense and some timely defense.<\/p>\n
Luka Doncic led the Lakers with 27 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. But he was just 10-for-22 from the field and three-for-10 from three-point range and he had seven turnovers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we responded in a good way,\u201d: Doncic said. \u201cSometimes you got to win playing bad. That\u2019s what good teams do. I think that\u2019s what it is today. Obviously it wasn\u2019t our best game, but we managed to get a win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Austin Reaves had 15 points on four-for-15 shooting and two for seven on three-pointers, eight rebounds and five turnovers.<\/p>\n
Reaves injured his arm late in the fourth quarter after stripping the basketball away from Williamson. But after a quick time out, Reeves returned to the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just hit my funny bone,\u201d Reaves said. \u201cWhole hand went numb, called a time out, kind of went away and was able to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deandre Ayton had 13 points and eight rebounds.<\/p>\n
There also was the defense and energy Marcus Smart and Jaxson Hayes provided the Lakers.<\/p>\n
Smart had 10 points, four steals and three blocks. He also was big on offense, drilling a three-pointer with 1:34 left for a 105-98 Lakers lead.<\/p>\n
Hayes had eight points, six rebounds and two blocks.<\/p>\n
\u201cJaxson was guarding Zion, which is not easy,\u201d Doncic said. \u201cSo, I think he had some big, big plays for us. And obviously Smart has been the key to our wins (this season).\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lakers had 20 turnovers through three quarters, which didn\u2019t help their cause.<\/p>\n
They had just one in the fourth quarter and that came on a late-game 24-second violation when they were running out the clock.<\/p>\n
The Lakers didn\u2019t help themselves by losing their composure.<\/p>\n
Doncic was given a technical foul in the second quarter. Luke Kennard received a technical foul in the third quarter and Ayton got a technical foul in the fourth quarter after being called for a foul blocking a shot by Williamson.<\/p>\n
![\"Austin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772618768_704_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Austin Reaves celebrates after making a three-pointer in the second half.<\/p>\n
(Allen J. Schaben\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
The Lakers had 12 blocks for the game and seven in the decisive fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
They held the Pelicans to 35% shooting in the fourth and just 23 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve made some strides defensively,\u201d James said. \u201cI think we didn\u2019t play much at all zone tonight. We started the game with it, we kind of went away from it. So, I thought our man-to-man defense was pretty good. I thought Jaxson and Marcus were great on that end and then everyone else kind of trickled in as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lakers were looking to stack wins and are not in position to judge an opponent by its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2454,20294,29086,48,52,51,1415,13505,47,50,49,7551,1420,44149,1417,7556,18796,56399,14921,315,34124],"class_list":{"0":"post-203703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-deandre-ayton","10":"tag-double-figure","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-la-headlines","13":"tag-la-news","14":"tag-lakers","15":"tag-lebron-james","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","18":"tag-los-angeles-news","19":"tag-luka-doncic","20":"tag-marcus-smart","21":"tag-pelicans","22":"tag-point","23":"tag-rebound","24":"tag-starter","25":"tag-technical-foul","26":"tag-third-quarter","27":"tag-time","28":"tag-turnover"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}