Lakers-Pelicans game lacked star power as well as meaning

NEW ORLEANS – LeBron James’ first season with the Los Angeles Lakers is over.

It was a dud.

What is presumably Anthony Davis’ last season with the New Orleans Pelicans is essentially if not officially over.

It too has been a dud.

The Lakers and the Pelicans met Sunday evening in the Smoothie King Center in a game lacking nearly as much in star power as it lacked in playoff implication.

James sat on the bench in street clothes to watch his team’s first game since the organization announced Saturday that it was shutting him down for the rest of the season because of a groin injury.

Davis has officially been day to day because of lower back spasms that kept him out of games against Atlanta last Tuesday and Sacramento last Thursday.

Before Sunday’s game, coach Alvin Gentry said Davis would miss a third consecutive contest and that he would not play again this season unless he feels “great.”

In other words, Davis’ season is unofficially over and his career as a Pelican is almost certainly over.

He asked the organization to trade him back in late January and reportedly let it be known that the Lakers were his preferred new team. James already had stated publicly that he wanted to play with Davis.

The two have the same management. They tried to orchestrate a trade that would unite the two in Los Angeles.

The trade never happened and both teams’ seasons disintegrated after the trade demand.

Los Angeles and New Orleans did discuss a possible Davis trade leading up to the trading deadline in late February. The Pelicans weren’t satisfied with any offers, and the Lakers claimed that New Orleans acted in bad faith and never considered making a deal but let the offers go public in order to upset the numerous young Lakers mentioned in the talks and thereby disrupt the team’s chemistry.

Whatever New Orleans’ intentions were, both teams fell out of practical playoff contention long before they were mathematically eliminated earlier this month.

So on Sunday night, as James pondered who his teammates might be next season and Davis pondered which team he might be on next season, a bunch of guys who will never have the power to do what James and Davis have done to their teams this season, took up the cause of finishing out the season for Los Angeles and New Orleans.

The Lakers’ starters – Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Lance Stephenson, Rajon Rondo, Moritz Wagner and JaVale McGee – would have been prohibitive underdogs against their absent players – James, Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma.

The same could be said of the Pelicans starters – Ian Clark, Elfrid Payton, Kenrich Williams, Julius Randle and Jahlil Okafor – in relation to their absent teammates – Davis, Jrue Holiday, E’Twaun Moore, Darius Miller and Frank Jackson.

New Orleans led by one point at halftime, but Los Angeles outscored it 44-22 in the third quarter and 69-40 in the second half.

So the Lakers are 35-42 and the Pelicans are 32-46.

Both teams will be put out of their misery in less than 10 days.

The next time they meet, someone other Luke Walton will be coaching Los Angeles and perhaps someone other than Alvin Gentry will be coaching New Orleans.

Presumably James will still be with the Lakers. Perhaps Davis will be with him, perhaps not, but presumably he won’t be a Pelican.

No matter how this all plays out, it’s reasonable to assume both teams will be in better shape than they were Sunday night.