The New Orleans Pelicans dominated the Los Angeles Lakers in a game that was decided early in the third quarter, and possibly as early as the second. It’s not often a team like the Pelicans dominate on the road, and this season in particular they’ve struggled to wake up for games against weaker competition. However, tonight New Orleans came out, took care of business, and won the game handily. Ignore the final score as the Lakers made it look closer than it was at the end.
New Orleans started off the game slow, and the Lakers actually led at the end of the first quarter. The Pelicans defense was being exploited, and the Lakers were getting to the rim with relative ease. They’ve constantly had a problem all season of Omer Asik making the correct rotation, and nobody would come help the helper, resulting in an open bucket. The Lakers managed to exploit that early on, but that’s about all they were able to do. From the second quarter on, New Orleans led by double digits. They mainly did so by out scoring LA, but their defense did step up enough to the point where the Pelicans were able to run away with it. All in all, a solid performance and a good win.