Despite finishing with a good 47-35 overall record, the Los Angeles Lakers won the eighth spot in the Western Conference and will face the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA Play-In Tournament’s preliminary round.

Throughout the regular season, the Lakers largely outmatched the Pelicans, even in Sunday’s season-ending game. Despite the challenging circumstances, the Lakers prevailed 110-106 to proceed to the postseason.

Before Austin Reaves’ three-pointer for the Lakers, the Pelicans had a commanding 4-0 lead. But, Brandon Ingram soon responded with his own.

Ingram made two midrange jumpers to get off to a strong start. But D’Angelo Russell and LeBron James both attempted deep shots in quick succession to give the Lakers the early advantage.

But after James was replaced, the Lakers were silent, and Zion Williamson began to get hоt under the collar. The Pelicans had taken a 34-26 lead at the end of the first quarter.

When James came back for the start of the second quarter, the Lakers went on an improbable 9-0 run that forced the Pelicans to call timeouts.

With two 3-pointers, Gabe Vincent, who was not involved in any games during the regular season, gave the Lakers the lead. Vincent made it in time.

After then, Los Angeles took command with another 13-0 run. Prince established a strong connection once more, and James went into аttаck mode, drawing foul calls. But after a terrible mistake, Williamson scored at the buzzer to go coast to coast and cut the Lakers’ lead to 60-50.

Anthony Davis had a quiet first half and continued to be so until he committed an оffensive foul in the third quarter. But the Pelicans continued to mishandle the ball, giving James and the Lakers a transitional advantage and a chance to increase their lead to 18.

But Williamson and the Pelicans answered right away with a three-pointer and transition layup, forcing the Lakers to take a timeout.

The Pelicans launched another оffensive run to end the third quarter and cut the margin to seven points, 83-76, with James coming off the bench once more.

At the start of the fourth quarter, James made a comeback and restored Los Angeles’s order, finding a cutting Vincent for a layup and Russell for a three.

But the Pelicans were not going away, as Jose Alvarado and Trey Murphy III both made two triples in response to cut the score to two points after a 9-0 runoff.

With just seconds remaining in the game, Williamson scored 40 points with an alley-oop and a layup. The score was tied at 95 points.

Williamson appeared to have suffered an ιnjury, but his arrival back in the locker room was a significant turn of events that put an end to the game. Given this, Reaves helped Davis dunk and then helped Russell make a three-pointer to give the Lakers a four-point advantage.

CJ McCollum’s layup in the closing seconds cut the Lakers’ deficit to two points. Reaves, though, was fouled and made both of his free throws to increase the deficit to four points. The Lakers would then basically shut out the game.