In his return from a knee injury that has kept him out for 18 games, Ryan Anderson showed home vertical ability when he dunked over Jordan Hill in the Pelicans 113-92 win over the Lakers. The dunk from Anderson came in the second quarter, where the Pelicans outscored the Lakers 31-18. This gave the Pelicans an 11 point lead going into halftime, and set them up to build on the lead the rest of the way. The dunk gave Anderson 2 out of his 17 points on the night.
After bouncing to an 2 point lead at the end of the first quarter, the Lakers struggled to score late in the game. The most they scored in a quarter after the first was 22 points, which occurred in the final 12 minutes of play. After scoring 11 points out of the 31 in the first quarter for the Lakers, Jordan Clarkson was held to 7 points in the remaining three-quarters.
It’s good to see a guy come back from injury and be able to do something like this. Anderson’s confidence that he won’t be injured again is going to be key as the Pelicans look to earn playoff position in the Western Conference. The Pelicans are currently 1.5 games behind the Thunder for the 8th seed in the playoff picture, and will look to improve their seeding when they visit Sacramento on Friday.
