Lakers vs. Pelicans Preview and Game Thread: The season finale

The Lakers have the chance to put together a happy ending to their season by clinching the eighth seed with a win against the Pelicans on Sunday.

The Lakers will play their final game of the season and it will decide their fate in the upcoming play-in tournament. The purple and gold will take on the streaking New Orleans Pelicans on the road, who are also fighting to clinch the sixth seed in the Western Conference.

Start time and TV schedule

Who: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Memphis Grizzlies

When: 12:30 p.m. PT, Apr 14.

Where: Smoothie King Center

Watch: ESPN, Spectrum Sportsnet

Just when we all thought the Lakers had lost control of their destiny after dropping two games in a row last week to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors, the basketball Gods gifted them a good Friday night. Everything that needed to go their way went their way and because of that, L.A. now has control of its destiny once again.

Despite barely winning against a Memphis Grizzlies team consisting of mostly G-League players, the Lakers are in prime position to lock in the eighth seed with a victory against the Pels on Sunday.

Our own Edwin Garcia did a fantastic breakdown of every possible play-in seed scenario for the Lakers. But to get straight to the point, the most likely outcome for L.A. is either the eighth seed with a win or falling all the way down to the 10th seed if they lose.

Of course, the Lakers should prefer ending up as the eighth seed because they’ll have the chance to only have to play one play-in tournament game. But earning that right isn’t going to be easy and it’s the reason why their season finale is their most important game of the year.

Will the Lakers prevail or disappoint us one last time?

The Lakers’ most recent vital victory against the Grizzlies wasn’t encouraging by any means. They were in a dogfight against a team consisting of third-stringers and had to play Anthony Davis for the whole second half and LeBron James for 41 minutes just to gut out a win. Suffice it to say that this is not the kind of victory you want them to be coming off of ahead of their season finale against the Pelicans.

But a win is a win and given Davis and James’ championship experience, it’s fair to trust them to ensure the team plays better than it did moving forward. After all, every game from now on has high stakes.

For the Lakers to beat the Pelicans, they need both their superstars to show up once again. It would also be nice if D’Angelo Russell breaks out of the slump he currently finds himself in because it’s clear by now how the team’s overall scoring production suffers when D’Lo isn’t playing well.

The Lakers will need to find a solution for the Pels’ length and shooting so their defense in this one really needs to be better than it has been for a while. This Pelicans team is currently playing confident basketball and is peaking at the right time.

The peaking Pelicans

Winners of four in a row, the Pels are looking more dangerous than ever. They certainly aren’t the version of themselves that got manhandled by the Lakers last December in the In-Season Tournament (IST) semifinals in Las Vegas. And oh, they’re expected to get Brandon Ingram back in their lineup after being sidelined with a knee injury since March 21.

In fairness to the Pels, even without Ingram, they’ve managed to stay afloat and that’s a testament to their overall talent. They’ve got Zion Williamson, who’s currently playing like he has something to prove, CJ McCollum, who has been shooting lights out lately surrounded by strong role players like Herb Jones, Trey Murphy III, Jonas Valanciunas, Larry Nance Jr. and the pesky Jose Alvarado to name a few.

Remember the last time the Lakers played this Pelicans team on their home floor, they were ran out of the arena thanks to McCollum shooting 54.5% from the 3-point line. Note that this Pels team is the fifth-best 3-point shooting team — 38.2% per game — in the league and it’s the reason why they have the 11th-best offense.

As mentioned above, the Lakers’ defense will have to improve in this one and it’ll be up to the starters — most especially the superstars — to take the purple and gold to lead the offense.

Throughout the season, the Lakers have had moments where they answered the call and moments where they failed to at times. It’s the reason why they’ve been an inconsistent team all year. As the regular season boils down to just one more game, Los Angeles is presented with another golden opportunity that they need to take advantage of.

It’ll be up to the Lakers whether they benefit from it by clinching the eighth seed or fail to capitalize from it and fall down once again in the standings.

Notes and Updates

• Before we get to the injury report, here’s a fun fact: Anthony Davis is 10-3 against the Pelicans in his career with the chance to further improve that on Sunday.
• Speaking of AD, Sunday’s game will be Davis’ 76th of the season, the most games he’s played in a single season.
• As for the injury report, the Lakers listed Anthony Davis (left eye contusion) and LeBron James (left ankle peroneal tendinopathy) as probable while Jalen Hood-Schifino (lumbar disc surgery), Jarred Vanderbilt (right midfoot sprain) and Christian Wood (left knee surgery) are out as expected.
• For the Pelicans, Brandon Ingram (left knee contusion), Naji Marshal (left shoulder contusion) are questionable while Cody Zeller (face) is available.

You can follow Nicole on Twitter at @nicoleganglani