New Orleans — The Lakers came back to beat the Pelicans 114-110 Wednesday night, fittingly sealing the win on 3 foul shots from Anthony Davis in his return to New Orleans. AD finished with a season-high 41 points.
“It just happened to work out that way,” Davis said. “I just wanted to get the win. It was a great game. Guys competed on both sides of the ball. We competed and I think from my perspective, everybody in the world that’s all they wanted– a game like that. Two good teams going at it. Obviously, I wouldn’t say tension, but it’s what everybody wanted to see and it was fun. It was fun to me. I had a great time and most importantly I’m just glad we got the win.”
“AD didn’t do anything we hadn’t already seen for the last 7 years,” said Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry. “He’s a great player. It’s a tough match-up for anyone and when you have LeBron out on the floor with you it becomes a real difficult match-up. Like I said, I thought we did a good job defensively. The last 6 minutes of the game is where we got ourselves in trouble. That’s where the separation came from and us losing the lead and then had to play catch-up the last 6 minutes.”
Round two between AD and his former team is just around the corner, about 5 weeks away, when the Pelicans travel to LA on January 3.