After his game-tying three-point attempt came up well short and the Lakers dropped their fifth straight game with 114–111 loss to the Pelicans on Friday night, LeBron James lamented his team’s misfortunes this season.
James was magnificent in front of the home crowd, scoring 38 points on 13-for-23 shooting to continue a stellar year. However, he sounded exasperated afterwards, recognizing that Friday’s game was “must-win” with the end of the regular season in sight.
“The big picture is that it pretty much was a must-win for us, and we didn’t get the job done,” James said, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “We had great opportunities throughout the night, and we didn’t make enough plays down the stretch. So that’s the big picture.”
The Lakers fell back to the No. 11 seed in the Western Conference for the second time this week and now trail the Spurs by a full game. Both teams have five regular season games remaining.
James and Anthony Davis provided the Lakers with a significant boosts on Friday night after the former missed the team’s previous two games. Davis had missed the last 18 starts because of a right midfoot sprain but returned with a fervor against the Pelicans, racking up 23 points, 12 rebounds and six assists.
However, the game unraveled in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter as the Lakers scored just seven points to close out the night.
“Just feels like you can’t catch a break,” James said. “No matter what’s going on on the floor, it just feels like the ball bounces the other way. The ball doesn’t always bounce in our favor. Or a call doesn’t go in our favor. It’s just like, when it rains, it pours for our year. It’s just the way it’s been going.”
Now trailing San Antonio by a full game, and without the tiebreak, Los Angeles will have to find some sort of late-season magic just to make the West play-in tournament. However, the road ahead won’t be easy for the Lakers, who must play the Suns, Warriors and two games against the Nuggets to close out the year.
Only the April 8 game against the Thunder comes against a team not currently in the West playoff field.
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