New Orleans (USA), May 16 (EFE) .- The star forward LeBron James led the attack with 25 points and the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the New Orleans Pelicans 98-110 on the road in the last game of the NBA regular season.
The victory, the fifth in a row, allows the Lakers to leave their mark at 42-30, but it was not enough to take them to direct qualification to the Western Conference playoffs and they will have to play the new entry tournament (play-in) .
It is that teams classified from seventh to tenth place will have to decide the final seventh and eighth places in the playoffs with three games in dispute.
The seventh, who are the Lakers, will play in their Staples Center field against the Golden State Warriors, eighth, and the winner will remain with the seventh place, while the loser will play against the winner of the game played by the Memphis Grizzlies, ninth , against the San Antonio Spurs, tenth, and the winner of the third game will occupy the eighth place.
The Portland Trai Blazers beat the Denver Nuggets 132-116 to finish sixth, and went straight to the playoffs to be rivals in the first round.
James, who led the attack although he injured his right ankle, played 27 minutes and led the five starting players, who had double-digit numbers.
Power forward Anthony Davis had 14 points and center Andre Drummond had a double-double of 13 points and 13 rebounds.
The other tall man, Spanish center Marc Gasol, scored three points in 27 minutes of action by scoring 1 of 4 shots from the field (1 of 3 triples). In addition, he had seven rebounds and gave four assists.
With the loss the Pelicans leave their mark in losing numbers of 31-41.
The Spanish center Willy Hernangómez led the New Orleans team’s attack with a double-double of 19 points and 13 rebounds.
Hernangómez spent 30 minutes on the field of play and scored 8 of 11 shots from the field, 3 of 5 from the personnel line, and delivered an assist.
Naji Marshall scored 18 points and Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 14 points with the Pelicans, who continued with the losses of their stars and reached the last league game already eliminated from the playoffs.
(c) EFE Agency