The New Orleans Pelicans had their four-game winning streak snapped last night in Denver in frustrating fashion.
As CJ McCollum said after the game, it was a “winnable” one for the Pelicans, who stormed back from an early deficit to take the lead late.
You wouldn’t think a game in which the Pels were down 34-13 in the 1st quarter was one they should have won, but it was, as they had a lead with just seconds remaining in regulation and couldn’t hold on.
After taking a 130-126 lead, the Nuggets went on a 12-0 run to finish overtime, most of it coming from reigning MVP Nikola Jokic, who was amazing, but also at the center of some of the controversy surrounding the game.
It was a frustrating night for the Pelicans, who played well at times but couldn’t close it out.
New Orleans Pelicans vs. Denver Nuggets: Technicals, fouls and controversy
The game featured six technical fouls, five of which were committed by Denver, and the funny thing is that there probably should have been a few more.
CJ McCollum was hit with a quick “T” early in the game for arguing a goaltending call. Unless he said one of the magic words that we didn’t hear, it didn’t appear that McCollum had done enough to warrant a technical on that play.
Especially when you consider that Jokic was complaining, stomping around, ripping his shirt out of his shorts and pounding the ball into the floor all night, behavior that many felt should have earned him a technical if the one on McCollum was.
I don’t usually get into ref blaming too much, but there were some issues last night.
Free throws
The Denver Nuggets shot 14 more free throws than the Pelicans last night, a disparity that ended up being the difference in the game. While you can blame the refs for not having balanced whistles, they weren’t the ones bricking all of those free throws.
Even with the massive difference in attempts, the Pels still would have won the game if they had just hit more of the free throws they did get. They went just 20-29 from the line for 69 percent and you can’t blame the refs for that.
Searching for role player consistency
We pretty much know what we are going to get out of Brandon Ingram, McCollum, Jonas Valanciunas and Herbert Jones.
Ingram has been on fire of late and was brilliant again last night, hitting an array of shots, getting to the line and setting up teammates for assists.
But the Pelicans need that 5th and 6th guy to step up and it just hasn’t happened consistently enough. They only had four players in double digits, and one of them, Devonte’ Graham, did it on poor shooting.
Teams are going to focus on shutting down the Pels’ “Big 3” of BI, CJ and JV, so someone else is going to have to step up and give them consistent double-digit production if they are going to make the play-in tournament and finish the season on a high note.