The Los Angeles Lakers couldn't beat the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday without Anthony Davis. Now the New Orleans Pelicans will have him back, with Andrew Lopez of The Times-Picayune reporting that he will play around 20 minutes in total, and the Lakers have fallen further than ever. They are now two games below .500 after dropping a winnable matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies and still sit three games out of the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference. They desperately need a win to stay in the race. And they are making a major change in an effort to get one. The Lakers are not starting a center tonight, choosing instead to go small with LeBron James at center. They have altered their starting lineup accordingly, choosing to put their best five players on the floor regardless of position. It is a bold choice, especially with Davis on the floor, but the Lakers don't have a center playing well right now. They didn't have much of a choice in this matter. Here are the starting lineups for both sides in this critical matchup.<doc-sep>The Telegraph Two of the surprise packages of this clay-court season have been British – initially Dan Evans, who made a deep run in Monte Carlo, and more lately Cameron Norrie, who played his second final in three weeks on Sunday. Unfortunately, Norrie wasn’t able to land a maiden ATP title in Lyon. But then he was up against Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has been the dominant force of 2021 outside the slams, and now stands at No 1 in the table of most rankings points gained since January 1. Nevertheless, it had been a hugely creditable effort for Norrie to go this far, especially when you consider that he took out top seed Dominic Thiem on Thursday, and then trounced big-hitting Russian Karen Khachanov in Saturday’s semi-final, losing only two games in the process. Norrie has come to clay late in his career, but it feels like this is developing into his favourite surface. He has one of the heaviest left-handed forehands in the game, loaded with top-spin, and uses it like a miniature version of Rafael Nadal. The result has been a tally of 14 wins and only four losses since he began his European clay-court swing in Barcelona. So while the French Open, which starts next Sunday, has traditionally been a graveyard of British hopes, there are reasons to hope that this year’s event could deliver some more positive results. Norrie’s previous final in Estoril had been a nervewracking affair which he eventually lost on a deciding-set tie-break to the more experienced Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Sunday was more straightforward for Tsitsipas, who needed only 69 minutes to hammer home a 6-3, 6-3 victory. It was Tsitsipas’ second title of the clay-court sequence, after he won Monte Carlo in mid-April, taking out Evans in the semi-final along the way. He has become a serious contender to upset the establishment – specifically Nadal and Novak Djokovic – at Roland Garros over the next few weeks. “I felt in good shape from the beginning of the tournament,” said Tsitsipas afterwards. “I am proud of today’s match, I knew it would be a difficult one against Cameron, who has been showing great tennis this week. He has been winning against good players and showing what the left hand can do on clay. “It was not an easy match today. I had to handle the nerves and I am proud of my performance and the way I stayed focused towards my goal.” On this year’s results, meanwhile, both Evans and Norrie stand among the world’s 20 most successful men. Evans is at No 16 and Norrie No 14. The next challenge for them both is to convert that ATP Tour form into a deep run at a major.<doc-sep>LOS ANGELES -- Anthony Davis will play limited minutes and likely will be held out in the fourth quarter for Wednesday night's game against the Los Angeles Lakers. New Orleans Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry said the plan remains to utilize Davis around "20 to 23" minutes and that he will likely not see action in the fourth as the Pelicans continue to protect themselves and try to limit the risk of any potential injury to Davis for the rest of the season. While Davis said he knows the plan the Pelicans have moving forward for him after he requested a trade in late January through his agent Rich Paul, the All-Star center said he still would love to be on the floor playing as much as he can with his teammates. "I mean, I think everybody wants to play the fourth quarter," Davis said at the Pelicans' morning shootaround. "Obviously it is frustrating. I've never, like I said before, been a guy who has been able to sit out the fourth, but I just play and do whatever I can, play as hard as I can for the minutes I am on the floor." This will be Davis' first game at Staples Center in front of the Lakers' fan base since Paul told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski that Davis wanted to be traded. With the Lakers a preferred destination for Davis, Lakers fans likely will shower Davis with applause on Wednesday in his last regular-season appearance against the Lakers at Staples Center this season. "I don't care," Davis said when asked about the potential fan reaction in his first road game against the Lakers since Dec. 21. Gentry said the Pelicans have been as transparent as possible with Davis about doing what the organization feels it has to moving forward. "He's fine," Gentry said. "He's not frustrated at all. Everything that we've done has been totally transparent. We sit down and we discuss it and we talk to him and we try to do what we think is best for the franchise and he understands it, so there's no animosity at all toward it." Davis sat out the Pelicans' 128-115 win over the Lakers in New Orleans on Saturday, the second game of a back-to-back. Gentry said that Davis will also sit out one of the upcoming games in a back-to-back set this weekend against the Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets. "Obviously he'd like to be playing," said Gentry, who played Davis a total of 21 minutes on Monday against Philadelphia but did not use the All-Star in the final 17 minutes of the game. "But I think we've got to look and see what we feel like is best for us at this particular time and move forward."<doc-sep>
In what was essentially a must-win game given the caliber of upcoming opponents, the Los Angeles Lakers looked a lot better against the New Orleans Pelicans, despite the presence on Anthony Davis after he missed the last game against L.A., and Julius Randle doing all he could to show his former home crowd what they are missing out on this season. While the game was probably a lot closer than everyone would’ve liked, the Lakers took care of business, winning 125-119. Brandon Ingram continued his stellar play against a New Orleans team that doesn’t really have a wing to consistently guard him, and finished with 23 points. His 6 rebounds were also crucial given the starting lineup Luke Walton went with. He also hit arguably the biggest shots of the game (not including LeBron James’ insane one-legged three to close things out in the final minute). James had an alright game of his own, finishing with 33 points, 10 assists and 6 boards. Walton started Rajon Rondo in JaVale McGee’s place, and Rondo reward him for the decision to the tune of 11 points, 16 assists and 7 rebounds, but remained a defensive liability. We’re supposed to get an update on Lonzo Ball from the medical staff on Thursday after they reevaluate him, and it goes without saying that the Lakers desperately need him for this final playoff push, even if Rondo did play his best game in weeks. Kyle Kuzma also furthered the trend of him and Ingram rising to the occasion as games get more important, scoring 22 points to go with 5 boards of his own. It’s been said a few times during this stretch, but it really speaks well to what fans might be able to hope for from both Kuzma and Ingram in high-intensity moments as the season moves along. Seeing as the Wolves, Kings and Clippers all lost their games tonight, this Lakers win is all the more important. Welcome to a race to the playoffs, where the scoreboard in the building the Lakers happen to be playing isn’t the only one to watch. For the first time since the All-Star break, they got good results in all of them. For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.