All season long, the Lakers have proven that if they are leading entering the fourth quarter, they will finish the game strong and win.
This year, Los Angeles is 27-1 when in front entering the final period, by far the best winning percentage in the Western Conference.
But what about when they are trailing as the game enters the last 12 minutes? In that category, the Lakers are a woeful 9-22.
So, the Lakers finding a way to come back and beat the Pelicans on Tuesday was a nice change of pace. Sure, the deficit was just one point as the fourth began, but they won with some great team defense and it was the type of victory that could galvanize LA, helping them to go on a run.
After the game, Lakers head coach JJ Redick talked about what made this win unique.
”Frankly, that’s not a win we’ve had since probably November, where we’re down late,” Redick said. “A lot of those early wins when we started 15-4, we had a number of double-digit deficits in the second half and just stuck with it and kept playing. It was a good win for our group to be able to do that again.”
The Lakers had a couple of these kinds of wins early on that met Redick’s criteria.
Constantly winning in the NBA is hard. And to win when you aren’t playing your best and trailing late in a game is even harder. As Luka Dončić said postgame, the Lakers played an ugly game against New Orleans, but good teams find ways to win those contests as well.
And if they can accomplish that, then this season still has the potential to be something special.