Miscues, missed opportunities, poor fundamentals and missed dunks all added up to a 99-96 home loss for the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday night, falling to the lowly Los Angeles Lakers.

While a sellout crowd showed up at the Smoothie King Center hoping for a Pelicans win and a show from future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant, they got one of the two.

Bryant, the All-Star and 20 year veteran, finished with 27 points, nailing a 3 pointer with a minute to go, and two other triples in the final six minutes.

Anthony Davis put up a great stat line for the Pelicans (39 points, 11 rebounds), but it'll likely be 2 easy points he should've had that'll keep him up tonight. With a breakaway dunk to cut the deficit to 5 with 3:00 to play, Davis didn't have a defender within 20 feet of him. Then, this happened.

The play was a paradigm of the entire night for New Orleans, who had multiple missed dunks, misses from close range, and went an awful 14-26 from the free throw line.

Despite the struggles, the Pelicans cut the deficit to 4 with 22 seconds to go. However, on the Lakers next possession, Pelican defenders did not foul, nor did they put pressure on the ball. As a result, LA milked 15 seconds off the clock in an excusable sequence.

Pelicans coaches could be seen screaming at players to foul, but head coach Alvin Gentry took the blame.

"That's on me," said Gentry. "It's my job to communicate the message."

With the loss, the Pelicans fall to 18-31 on the season. The Lakers improve to 11-41.

 

More From 103.3 The GOAT