Lakers 99, Pelicans 96
NEW ORLEANS -- Cheered on by a road crowd, Kobe Bryant nailed three 3-pointers in the final 6:07 to score a team-high 27 points and lift the Los Angeles Lakers to a 99-96 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday at the Smoothie King Center.
Bryant re-entered the game with the Lakers holding an 85-79 lead, and immediately hit a 3-pointer from the right wing and came back on the next possession with another long-range jumper from the left wing.
Each time his shot fell, the Pelicans' home crowd erupted in cheers.
The Lakers (10-42), who had lost 14 of their previous 16 games, also got 18 points from guard Jordan Clarkson.
The Pelicans (18-31) lost their third consecutive game despite a game-high 39 points and 11 rebounds by forward Anthony Davis.
The Lakers led 85-73 with 8:31 left, but New Orleans scored six straight and had a chance to cut the deficit to four, but Davis missed two free throws.
Bryant came immediately down court and nailed a 3-pointer, giving Los Angeles an 88-79 lead with 5:40 remaining.
Another key exchange happened two minutes later, when Davis missed a wide-open dunk, and the Lakers grabbed the long rebound for a layup on the other end by D'Angelo Russell for a 95-86 lead with 2:50 left.
Davis scored 17 of the Pelicans' first 19 points of the third quarter, but the Lakers still led 79-69 entering the fourth. The Pelicans missed all seven 3-point attempts in the third quarter.
The Lakers blitzed the Pelicans with a 33-20 second quarter to take a 59-48 lead at halftime. Clarkson made all seven of his field goal attempts to put up 16 first-half points, including 10 in a 25-12 run over the final 8:39 of the second quarter.
Bryant added 13 points and eight rebounds in the first half. He even received chants of "MVP" while shooting two free throws with the Lakers leading 50-42.
The Lakers led by 12 points early in the first quarter as the Pelicans missed nine of their first 10 shots, but New Orleans responded with a 16-2 run in the final 3:18 of the quarter to take a 28-26 lead.
Davis led New Orleans with 14 first-half points, but he missed two layups and the Pelicans killed themselves by missing 9 of 16 from the foul line.
The Lakers, the worst-shooting team in the NBA, shot 55.8 percent in the first half.
NOTES: Kobe Bryant played his second-to-last game in New Orleans, eliciting memories of a 50-point performance in a regular-season game against the New Orleans Hornets in 2007. Bryant was the second player in NBA history to record four consecutive games of at least 50 points. Lakers coach Byron Scott was the New Orleans coach during the 50-point explosion. "I kept telling our guys, 'He's going to go off at some time in this game. Just make him make tough shots,'" Scott said. "It ended up working that night and we were able to get the win." ... New Orleans coach Alvin Gentry remembers an impossible jump shot Bryant drained against the Phoenix Suns in the sixth game of the Western Conference finals in 2010. "Grant Hill is defending him out by our basket and he jumps up and I say, 'Good defense,' and (Kobe) moves the jump shot to another angle and makes it and turns around and give me a nice little slap on the hip and says, 'Not good enough,'" Gentry said.