New Orleans Pelicans: The Night The Losing Stopped
By Tim Burke
We’re looking back at the most important games of the New Orleans Pelicans season, including the night the streak finally ended.
On a cold night in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, the New Orleans Pelicans rode hot shooting and strong defense to a win, shooting 44.2% while limiting the Twolves to just 99 points.
Leaving New Orleans after a tough overtime loss to Brooklyn in which the Nets scored 108 points, this was the start of a four-game road trip the team would ride until their Christmas-day matchup with Denver.
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The Timberwolves did not have Karl-Anthony Towns or Jarrett Culver for this game; Towns had a knee strain and Culver was sick. Frank Jackson and Nicolo Melli did not play for the New Orleans Pelicans, while J.J. Redick came back after a groin injury caused him to miss the Brooklyn game the night before.
What was at stake in this game?
The Pelicans having lost 13 straight coming into this one, had been dealing with trade rumors for the last few days regarding Jrue Holiday. The night before Dec 17th, 2019 David Griffin had to make a statement denying that Holiday would be traded.
If the streak kept up for much longer, the national sports media would say the Pelicans needed to trade Holiday now while his value was still high. Trading your team’s leader is almost never a good idea.
Also the New Orleans Pelicans needed to stop this losing streak if there was to be any chance of making the playoffs. Going into the game the Pelicans were 6-22, six games back of the Sacramento Kings.
Who had the best game? Worst game?
Brandon Ingram had a great game, going for 34 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 1 block, while shooting 54.5% from the field in his 33 minutes. Ingram didn’t have a great start; neither did the New Orleans Pelicans as a whole, letting Minnesota get out to a 7-0 lead early.
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That slow start didn’t bother Ingram much once he got it going and he finished with career highs for points in a quarter and half with 18 and 25, respectively. In the second half Ingram took more of a secondary role in the teams’ scoring, choosing to move the ball to open shooters instead of forcing a tough shot against a collapsed defense.
The worst game belongs to Kenrich Williams, who despite starting this game only played 19 minutes and didn’t score a single point. He only took two shots in the game and his three rebounds are the only positive stat he accumulated.