Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Takeaways from win over New Orleans Pelicans

The Los Angeles Lakers were able to defeat the New Orleans Pelicans. Here are four takeaways from the win.

The Los Angeles Lakers are starting to wrap up the season and the evaluations of the roster are now in full effect. First the Lakers dropped a bombshell on Saturday, shutting down LeBron James for the season to get a head start on getting his groin fully healthy. It seems that the one-year veterans all of a sudden are showing a different level of play that warranted the vision of the Lakers front office.

But then again, some of these players know that their Lakers career could end around say April 9th?

The Los Angeles Lakers started their final road trip by destroying the New Orleans Pelicans 130-102. The win marked the team’s 4th in their last 5 games. In games like these where storylines are difficult for all Lakers media involved, the story of this game was about the veterans who Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka have to decide whether to keep next year and how far the mighty has fallen.

Magic Johnson was not in New Orleans to watch the game. He was off watching the Duke Michigan State game to see if his old school would make it to the Final Four. With the Spartans beating Zion Williamson’s bunch, maybe he can start scouting and dreaming of ways to get RJ Barrett or Cam Reddish in the purple and gold.

This game brought back memories of how bad things had gotten for the Lakers the last time the team was in the “Big Easy”. The Lakers had suffered an embarrassing loss to the Pelicans without Anthony Davis that easily could be seen as the final straw to the season. After a huge comeback victory against the Houston Rockets, the Lakers laid an egg in a game the NBA world was watching. The Lakers/Pelicans Anthony Davis deadline saga was well documented by this time with the Lakers playing one of the worst games of the season. This game showed everyone how dysfunctional the entire franchise was. It was even rumored that Luke Walton was left behind.

Well according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, it seems that some of the locker room (Hold up…let’s just say most of the locker room) had gotten tired of LeBron James’ act and more importantly statements being said to the media.

"On an off day in Memphis following a 128-115 loss to an Anthony Davis-less Pelicans team on Feb. 23, the LeBron James-led Lakers had their own air-it-out session. Rondo organized the players-only meeting to find “a better understanding of one another,” a team source told ESPN."

Remember that statement about the Lakers comfort level with losing? That five-minute monologue probably destroyed any evidence of locker room chemistry for the rest of the season.

The next game was against Memphis, where the media started its own unofficial investigation on LeBron’s defensive issues. By this time, the Lakers playoff chances were done and now here we are playing out the string.

Let’s talk about players Magic Johnson will have to make decisions on re-signing for next year.