The Lakers once led by as many as 18 points during their play-in matchup against the Pelicans. In the fourth, however, they found themselves in a close game, tied at 99 with 1:32 to go.

In clutch time, the Lakers needed everyone to come up big and they delivered. D’Angelo Russell hit a clutch 3-pointer in the corner, Anthony Davis had a big rebound followed by a pair of free throws and Reaves hit his shots from the charity stripe as well to secure the victory. This result marks the first time a Western Conference team won the No.7 vs No. 8 matchup as the eighth seed.

The locker room was full of positive vibes after the Lakers punched their ticket to the playoffs. Austin Reaves talked about the appreciation Lebron James demonstrated to his teammates after the win.

“I don’t want to say Bron struggled tonight but he looked at me in the locker room and was like ‘I don’t know the last time I shot 6-20’ and basically praised the team for pulling us through this win,” Reaves said postgame. “But for him to have the confidence in me to not go score or whatever, just to make the right play, it means a lot to me and it means a lot to the ball club because you can just tell by that mentality that he has that he really just wants to win. That’s the beautiful thing about it. He doesn’t care about being that guy every single possession. He is that guy (but) he doesn’t have to do it every single time. When it might not work a couple possessions, we can go away from it but we’re always going to get back to it.”

James has always been the player who plays the right way and trusts his teammates to step up.

Some of the biggest shots during his Lakers tenure have come from James’ supporting cast. Like Anthony Davis’ game-winner versus the Nuggets in 2020 or Austin Reaves’ ‘I’m him’ game against the Grizzlies in 2023, he’s always ready to share the spotlight if it means a better chance of executing a winning play.

This has been the recipe for success for the Lakers throughout the LeBron era and 2024’s team is no different.

“We’ve just been playing good ball and everybody’s been contributing,” James said postgame. “Hasn’t been many games where me and AD shot the ball, I think we were 12-36 from the field, but the rest of the guys picked us up. So, myself and AD were trying to do everything else that we could: AD getting offensive rebounds, making free throws down the stretch, I continued to find my guys. Obviously, big time shot by D’Lo in that strong corner by their bench. It was a good all-around team win.”

The Lakers will need 16 more wins this postseason to earn their 18th NBA championship and break their tie with their rivals, the Boston Celtics. If Los Angeles continues to get good all-around play from its supporting cast in the upcoming series versus the Nuggets, they’ll put themselves in an excellent position to do just that.