The first week after the All-Star was the typical rollercoaster for the New Orleans Pelicans. Let’s take a moment to review the week and revel in the good times.
This week encapsulated what has been a very typical four-game stretch for New Orleans this season. Two wins and two losses are what we would have predicted when looking at the schedule and indeed that’s what the team got, but the individual games had different than expected results.
It started with a hugely embarrassing loss to Minnesota in the first game back. It wasn’t bad enough to lose to the NBA’s worst team, but New Orleans had a 16-point lead with a few minutes remaining in the first quarter and managed to cough it up en route to a 20-point loss. A 135-105 Timberwolves victory was not the way anyone associated with either team envisioned this one going down.
The worst part about the result was that the Pels managed to keep Karl Anthony-Towns in check the entire game but let bench players and rookies go off for career nights. Any time a team holds Towns to 16 points and seven rebounds, you’d assume the Timberwolves lose that game. But you know what they say about assuming and the Timberwolves bench made donkeys of us all.
The next night against Cleveland was a game I thought the Pels would lose just because it was the second night of a back-to-back. I was wrong, as the Pels came out and shellacked the Cavs. The 116-82 win saw New Orleans give up their fewest points of the season, which will probably serve as the lowest allowed amount for the remainder of the season as well.
More importantly, this blowout win allowed Stan Van Gundy to go into the depths of his bench and give minutes to players who had barely seen the court. The bench trio of Josh Hart, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and rookie Kira Lewis didn’t shoot well in the game but still managed to finish their nights with a positive plus/minus.
The biggest night of the week came on Sunday. This was the Pels’ third game in four nights so you’d be forgiven if you thought they might come out a little flat against the Clippers. Of course, New Orleans came in like a wrecking ball and bullied the Clippers all game for a decisive 20 point victory over the Western Conference’s fourth seed. While his dunk will be his most remembered moment (more on that later), Jaxson Hayes had a damn good game.
The Pels’ young trio of Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson, and Lonzo Ball all scored at least 20 points while chipping in in other ways as well. This was the kind of game that reminds you how good New Orleans can be on any given night. It’s just that these games happen too infrequently. For them to make the leap to become playoff-caliber, these nights need to become commonplace and not the outlier.
The last game of this week was the first of two consecutive games against Portland. If you managed to stay up until the end of the game you were in store for a real nail-biter. Damian Lillard went off for 50 points and hit two free throws with just over one second left to give Portland the win.
This was just an absolutely crushing loss to a playoff team that New Orleans had on the ropes all game. The Pels were up 112-96 after an Alexander-Walker three about halfway through the fourth quarter and still gifted the game away. This loss gives New Orleans 11 losses from a double-digit lead position. Flip the results of just half of those games and the Pels would sit 23-17 and squarely in the playoff picture.