New Orleans Pelicans: Looking Back At The Worst Loss In Franchise History

We’re looking back at some of the New Orleans Pelicans most important games from the season. Today was not a fun game to re-examine.

The New Orleans Pelicans had a few games this season we’d rather forget.

December 7th, 2019 may be remembered as a good day across the state of Louisiana as that night the LSU Tigers absolutely demolished the Oklahoma Sooners in the Peach Bowl to secure a spot in the College Football National Title game that would be played a few weeks later in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Across the street from the dome though, the New Orleans Pelicans suffered the franchise’s worst loss in a regular season game, a 46-point drubbing by the Dallas Mavericks that ended 130-84. New Orleans had a horribly ineffective game shooting the three ball, going 3-32 from deep, good for an appalling 9.4% shooting percentage.

Going into this game the Pelicans had lost seven straight and were in the middle of what would become a 13-game losing streak. Derrick Favors was still away from the team after the tragic passing of his mother in late November. Any sign of light at the end of this particular tunnel would be welcomed with open arms.

There were signs that New Orleans was starting to figure things out. Brandon Ingram for one had a streak of 12 straight 20-point games coming into this one and the majority of the seven losses were by single digits.

Dallas on the other hand was firing on all cylinders, winning five straight and sitting in second place with a 15-6 record. One of those wins was against the Pelicans just four days earlier. In that first matchup Luka Doncic went off, putting up a 33 point, 18 rebound, 5 assist performance while not even playing in the fourth quarter.

As the great Yogi Berra once said this game was “like Deja Vu all over again”.

Doncic would not play in the fourth quarter of this game either, in fact he played just over half of the game (26 mins. and 11 secs.).

Both teams are fast starters this season, Dallas and New Orleans are the top two teams in first quarter scoring averaging 29.8 and 29.6 points, respectively. This game was no different with Dallas leading 31-28 after the first, even though New Orleans was only 1-8 from distance in the quarter.

Those scoring averages are somewhat surprising when you look at the pace both teams play at. Pace is the number of possessions that a team has in a game; New Orleans is second in the NBA by this measure at 103.96 and Dallas is 18th with 99.78. While that number may seem small, a team averaging four more possessions per game is like starting every quarter with the ball.

The game didn’t stay close for long, as the Pels continued to miss three’s and the last time it was tied was with nearly eight minutes left to play in the second quarter. From then on it was a parade of missed three pointers for New Orleans.

What was at stake in this game?

The New Orleans Pelicans needed a win to stem the bleeding and stop their losing streak. The playoffs were beginning to feel out of reach at this point. While the Phoenix Suns (10-11) had only four more wins than New Orleans, they were on the verge of getting DeAndre Ayton back from a banned substance suspension and could have been expected to continue as a nearly .500 team with him back.

Dallas on the other hand was in second place in the Western Conference on their own five game winning streak and trying to catch the 20-3 Lakers. Behind the Mavs in the standings were the Nuggets, Clippers and Rockets, four teams who were expected to contend for the West. If Dallas could keep pace with those teams it would be proof that Doncic could lead a contender.