A Christmas Miracle: New Orleans Pelicans Snap Denver’s Winning Streak
By Tim Burke
With the NBA season on hold, we’re looking back at the most important games of the season. On tap today, the New Orleans Pelicans delivered coal to Denver.
This game was the last of a four game road trip the New Orleans Pelicans had started back with their win over Minnesota on the 18th of December.
The team went 2-1 in the three games before this one, and were beginning to dig themselves out of the hole their 13-game losing streak put them in.
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The Pelicans had beaten two teams they would need to climb over to get back into the chase for the last playoff spot in Portland and Minnesota in the days leading up to this game; however, they lost a stinker to Golden State who had the worst record in the league.
Denver was the winner of seven straight and the enjoying the best start in the team’s history at 21-8, sitting second in the Western Conference. The Nuggets were riding high coming into this game, the night cap of ESPN’s loaded Christmas day schedule.
With an average margin of victory of more than 10 points during their win streak, Denver was dangerous and looking to build on a very good season.
Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray had been outstanding during those seven wins averaging 21.9 points, 10.3 rebounds, 8.6 assist and 19.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 4.6 assists respectively.
Zion Williamson had started individual drills leading up to this game. During the broadcast the sideline reporter for ESPN, Jorge Sedano, said that the Pelicans were “reprogramming” the way Zion walks and runs. That was a scary thing to hear during the game as it felt like Zion’s return could get pushed even further back.
What was at stake in this game?
For the New Orleans Pelicans, this game was needed just to stay close to the eighth spot in the conference. Even though Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin had stated about a week earlier that Jrue Holiday would not be traded, it was still possible the Pelicans would move Holiday if they were blown away by an offer.
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The team needed to show growth and start winning more games to keep the buzzards away.
For Denver, they needed to win this game to close the gap between them and the first place Los Angeles Lakers who had lost only hours before to the Clippers. A win here would also put more space between Denver and Houston, the Rockets also lost on Christmas to Golden State.
Who had the best game? Worst game?
This was a standout game for Brandon Ingram who filled up the stat sheet with a 31 point, 7 rebound, 2 assist, 2 steal and 1 block performance that featured a career high seven made three-pointers. This was part of a great run, Ingram averaged 27 points on this four game trip.
The cherry on the top was that Ingram was hyper efficient in this game, shooting 61.1% from the field including going 7-9 from three. He had just two turnovers and no fouls, an all around great performance that showed he is an All-Star player in this league (something I didn’t believe when he was traded to New Orleans).
Lonzo Ball had a tough game offensively, going 2-8 from three in this one, but he nearly had a double double with a 10 point, 9 rebound, 3 assist game. While it wasn’t a great game from Lonzo, he did not have the worst game.
The worst game here belongs to Jamal Murray. His eight points, four rebounds and three assists were well below his averages during the Nuggets win streak and he shot 20% from the field. Combine those poor numbers with 2 turnovers and 4 fouls and you’ve got the recipe for a very poor performance.