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NBA Play-In Tournament: Lakers vs. Pelicans - Zion's Injury & LeBron's Performance
Apr 11, 2025
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I just saw a Woj tweet that stated Zion is out for Friday's game and will be re-evaluated in the coming weeks. Dang man :(
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Last night, the NBA kicked off their fourth year of the play-in tournament as we know it
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Day one featured the Western Conference teams, starting with the New Orleans Pelicans and the
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Los Angeles Lakers. The 7-8 seeds, with the winner drawing the Denver Nuggets in a 2-7 matchup
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in the NBA playoffs. The Pels would jump out to a first-quarter lead 34-26, with the Lakers scoring
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just five points in the final six minutes of the first quarter. This one would have looked rough
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for the Lakers early on without D'Lo, who scored 13 points in that first frame. But in the second
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quarter, it was all LA. They would dominate 34 to 26, getting up by as much as 14 points with a
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minute 40 to go. Zion Williamson would go the full length of the court in just four seconds
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laying the ball in to cut the lead to 10 points at half. This video is brought to you by Underdog
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joining the hardwood discord and following me on twitter i highly recommend joining the discord
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anyway it's a fun place to be we're doing watch parties for the play-in tournament and the playoffs
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and an nba bracket challenge the link is in the description to join we'll see you over there it
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looked like this could be a blowout halfway through the third quarter when the lakers extended their
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lead to 18 points but the pels would keep on fighting trey murphy hits this deep three cutting
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the lead to eight and a Zion free throw would cut it to seven going into the final quarter
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After back-to-back buckets tying the game from Zion with 3.53 to go, Zion would again tie the
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game with 3.19 to go and Darvin Ham would call a timeout. One thing the broadcast briefly pointed
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out before the commercial break was a noticeable grimace from Zion after that layup, but it was
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quickly cut to a commercial and we didn't really see what happened plus it didn't look like much
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but once we got back from the commercial break they broke the news that Zion was headed to the
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locker room in frustration an absolutely devastating blow for this New Orleans Pelicans team in crunch
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time Zion would not return to the game the team afterwards said it was left leg soreness but
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Shams would say it was a left hamstring injury that they had no idea the severity of. There were
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some reports saying that he left the arena without any noticeable limp, but we all know how tricky
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and weird hamstring injuries can be. They're pretty easy to re-aggravate even with minor ones
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Larry Nance Jr would fail to tie the game going one for two from the free throw line and then Dyson Daniels helps off strong side leaving D in the corner for a dagger three the Lakers win this one 110 to 106 and guys I must say I feel so bad for
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Zion and New Orleans Zion finished the game with 40 points 11 rebounds and five assists on 17 for
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27 from the field while exiting the game with still three minutes left on the clock if you're
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Remember, these two teams met in the semifinals of the in-season tournament in Vegas
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and everybody was clowning Zion for being out of shape and an awful performance
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So for him to come back against this team on the national stage
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have the game that he had was absolutely remarkable. I'm so happy for him
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It just completely sucks that it ended like this. Again, as you watch the replay
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you don't really see anything happen on the play that he tweaked his hammy on
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Hopefully it was just all precautionary. He'll play on Friday night against the winner of the Kings Warriors
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for a chance to face the one seed Oklahoma City Thunder in the playoffs
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The Pelicans need him. And let's be honest, the game of basketball needs Zion Williamson
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He got zero help from his veterans in this one. CJ McCollum was awful finished four for 15 from the field one for nine from three and nine points
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and that's after CJ had been averaging about 30 points per game over the past seven games
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Brandon Ingram struggled as well but I understand that one more I'm pretty sure he was on a minutes
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restriction only played 25 minutes in this game four for 12 from the field 11 points but he's
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coming off that knee injury with this only being his second game back. Anthony Davis played Jonas
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Valanciunas off the floor. He only played 20 minutes, went one for seven from the field. Instead
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it was the Pelicans young guys that kept them in this one. Jose Alvarado was massive. He finished
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with a team high plus 10 plus minus. Trey Murphy and Herb Jones were just fine in this game as well
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but with Zion off the court, the Pelicans could not score. But that is understandable when CJ
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and BI are having such bad games, you're going to have trouble scoring, and honestly, you're probably
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not going to win many games. I will say, I firmly believe that if Zion plays the rest of this game
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the Pelicans win. On the Lakers side, LeBron played 41 minutes, was 6 for 20 from the field
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had 23 points, 9 assists, and 9 rebounds. He struggled to score in the second half, but overall
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It's incredible that we continue to see LeBron doing this at 39 years old
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D'Angelo Russell is my MVP for the Lakers in this game. He had 21 points, 13 of those coming in the first quarter
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Six assists and went seven for 14 from the field. Finishing with a team high plus 16 plus minus I have to point this out As always the Lakers again doubled up the Pelicans on free throws increasing that free throw differential that is by far the best in the NBA
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By winning this game, the Lakers get the incredible reward of playing Nikoli Jokic and the reigning
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champions, the Denver Nuggets, in the playoffs. If I'm a Nuggets fan, I'm happy with this result
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I feel like the Lakers are not nearly as difficult of a matchup as the Pelicans are for Denver
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However, this will be a rematch of last year's Western Conference Finals
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We'll see if the Lakers can make this a series. Hopefully, they can get a couple guys back
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I know that Jared Vanderbilt's been out for about a month. He would be massive to have Andremal Murray in this series
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The Pelicans became just the second seven seed ever to lose the seven seed game in the
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NBA's four-year history of the play-in tournament. But if you're a Pelicans fan, do not worry
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There is some silver lining. The only other seven seed to lose that first game was last year's Miami Heat
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We all know what happened next. They beat the Bulls for the eight seed, upset the Bucks, and waltzed their way to an NBA
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finals appearance. So who knows, man? Maybe it's somehow a blessing in disguise
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That brings us to our second game of the night, the 9-10 seed matchup in the West, the Sacramento
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Kings and the Golden State Warriors. This was just a three-point game at halftime, but I will save you a detailed breakdown
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The Kings blew out the Warriors in the second half, winning 118-94
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This was an impressive win for Sacramento, a team that I felt like had kind of checked out the past couple weeks of the regular season
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especially with missing someone as massive as Malik Monk. Plus, they get some revenge over Golden State, who upset them in a 3-6 matchup last year in seven games on their home court
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Keegan Murray was impressive in this game, had 32 points, went 8 for 13 from 3
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Sabonis did what he always does, had 16, 12, and 7, and De'Aaron Fox had 24
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With Herter and Monk being injured, the Kings really don't have much depth
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Trey Lyles and Davion Mitchell were the only double-digit minutes off the bench, and the Kings
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heavily relied on their starters to score the ball, with their bench only scoring 13 points overall
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The Kings will now match up with the Pelicans on Friday for a chance to win and get in
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Unfortunately for Sacramento, this does not seem to be a good matchup for them. They are 0-5 on the
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season versus the Pelicans, but on the bright side, if you're a Kings fan, Zion may not play
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We don't know the status of his injury, and Brandon Ingram is clearly still trying to get back from that knee injury
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He doesn't look right. Either way, the Pelicans will almost certainly not be at full strength
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On the Warriors side, we very well could have seen the last of Steph, Klay, and Draymond playing together
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Klay is an impending free agent and if I were the GM of the Warriors I know that a big if I blowing it all up I sorry I know you have an emotional attachment to Steph to Klay to everything they done over the past decade But sometimes the best move is to recognize when it over and end it
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You could argue they have a good young core in Kaminga, Pajemski, and TJD
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Could you make an argument to keep Steph with that young core, trade away Draymond and Chris
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Paul, and let Klay walk in free agency? Absolutely, you could. But I don't know, man, sometimes you just got to rip the bandaid off
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Plus, selfishly, I would love to see Steph on a contender for the remaining few good
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years we have left. He's 36 years old, and we have no idea when the wheels are going to fall off
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Maybe we'll find out there was some type of lingering injury from Steph because his post
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all-star break numbers just weren't very good this year. He averaged 23 points per game, shot 38% from three
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But here's the problem that nobody wants to talk about. The West will be better next year than it was this year, which I know it's crazy to say
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but think about it. Memphis will be at full strength with John Morant, Marcus Smart, Desmond Bain, Jaron
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Jackson Jr., guys like Vince Williams and Gigi Jackson coming off the bench
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Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if they're a top four seed again next year. You have the Houston Rockets who are only going to be getting better with that young core
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And then if the rumors are true, it sounds like Danny Ainge is going to make a big splash
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this offseason for the Utah Jazz using up that cap space and that plethora of draft picks that
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they have. The West is only getting tougher and it feels like you are fighting an uphill battle
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trying to keep this same Warriors group together. To be frank, they're just not good enough to
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compete in the West for years to come. If I'm being honest though, they probably just re-signed
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Klay to a semi-team friendly deal next year and run it back. When it comes to actual performances
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tonight from Warriors players. Clay was awful. He was 0 for 10 from the field, 0 for 6 from 3
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zero points in 32 minutes. Steph had 22, but he really didn't play that well either. Keon Ellis
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did a good job on him. And speaking of Keon Ellis, he had 15 points on 5 for 8 from the field for the
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Kings. That is absolutely massive for a team that is hurting for scoring depth right now. Chris Paul
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also finished in 18 minutes with a whopping three points, two assists, and one rebound. I'm done
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talking about the Warriors. I was an idiot to pick them. I just thought the Kings were checked out and
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missing Malik Monk badly, but clearly I was wrong. That does it for our day one recap of the play-in
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tournament. If you guys enjoyed this video, be on the lookout for tomorrow morning. We'll be releasing
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our day two recap. If you enjoy these videos, comment, subscribe, join the discord. We're doing
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live watch parties for a majority of the NBA playoffs. And don't forget that 15,000 subscriber
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giveaway. All you have to do is enter the discord and follow me on Twitter. Thanks for watching
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And as always, we'll see you on the hardwood
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