Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers will head to New Orleans to face Anthony Davis and the Pelicans Wednesday night, November 12, 2014. The game will tip off at 8:00 PM Eastern Time, Smoothie King Center and can be viewed live online for free via online streaming here.
The Lakers (1-6) are heading to the second game of a back-to-back when they face the Pelicans on the road. The team lost 107-102 to the Memphis Grizzlies Tuesday night and are off to the worst start in 57 years. Aside from injuries of Julius Randle and Steve Nash, the team has numerous lingering problems that they need to address.
Outside of Kobe Bryant, the Lakers have struggled to score the ball this season and are not that impressive in the defensive side either, yielding to an NBA worst 112.7 points a game. They allowed the Grizzlies, a team not known for their offense, to shoot 52.6 percent on Tuesday night's loss.
"I guess it just kind of sums up our season thus far," point guard Jeremy Lin said per ESPN's Game Preview. "We did enough to learn and be there and didn't do enough to win."
The Pelicans (3-3) have been a decent defensive team early in the season allowing teams to only 95.2 points per contest. The team, though, fell the to the Cleveland Cavaliers in their latest game but the forward combo of Ryan Anderson and Anthony Davis gave Pelicans fans something to be excited about moving forward. Ryan Anderson scored 32 big points off the bench while Anthony Davis added 27 and 14 rebounds. The team was not able to contain the Cavaliers from beyond the arc with 13 3-pointers.
"In order for you to become one of the best you have to play the best and learn from them," Davis said. "I love playing against LeBron (James) and the Cavs. They're a tough team. They have three players who can score the ball at will. We broke down defensively. They scored 118 points. We can't allow teams to do that."
The Pelicans problems in defending the three point line should not be a problem when they face the Lakers though as the team only gets 15.4 percent of its 102.7 points per game from beyond the arc, ranking 28th.
New Orleans is the favorite in this matchup, laying -10.5 points here at home. The Total has been posted at Over/Under 208.0 per Pro Cappers.
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