Don't look now, but the New Orleans Pelicans are on a legitimate win streak. After taking care of business in back-to-back home games against the San Antonio Spurs, they've now carried their momentum with them on the road. On Thursday night, February 27, the Pelicans cruised past the Phoenix Suns, 124-116.
Zion Williamson led the way for New Orleans with an all-around dominant performance, finishing with 27 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists, giving him his first career triple-double. He did so while shooting a sparkling 13-17 from the field and adding two blocks and two steals to fill up the stat sheet.
Zion was by far the best player on the floor, but this was an admirable team effort from New Orleans. Seven different players finished with double-digit points, including former second-round pick turned free agent signing Karlo Matkovic who continued to take advantage of his newfound opportunity by chipping in 17 points, including 3-7 shooting from 3-point land, and 10 boards. This was a highly impressive victory from the new-look Pelicans, and it could have some unforeseen ramifications down the line.
Pelicans win the game against the Suns and their showcase for Kevin Durant
This win was New Orleans's third in a row and moved them to 16-43 on the season. This little streak has reminded the NBA and the world what the Pelicans are capable of when healthy, even when they're not at full strength, but it could also wind up being extremely costly for the team and its interests down the road.
With their second win over the Spurs on Tuesday night, New Orleans jumped from the 29th place in the standings to 27th, moving them out of the bottom-three threshold for odds in the draft lottery. The Charlotte Hornets also played tonight and tallied another much-needed loss against the Dallas Mavericks to widen the gap between them and the Pelicans in the standings. I surmised earlier in the season that this team simply has too much talent to tank organically. They were able to keep the ship sinking for a while, but it's starting to look like the Pelicans might end up winning their way out of the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes.
On the bright side, New Orleans just put up an excellent audition for Kevin Durant. This was a perfect game in terms of pitching the Pelicans as a potential landing spot for the Slim Reaper this summer. KD put up a fantastic individual effort with 28 points on 12-23 shooting and saw his chief running mate in Devin Booker drop 36 points, nine assists, and seven rebounds, but his Suns still dropped an extremely important game to the 14th seed in the West.
Meanwhile, Durant saw firsthand the gravity and dominance that Zion carries. He witnessed the surprising depth that the Pelicans have accumulated, with players like Karlo Matkovic and Jose Alvarado giving Phoenix buckets. He caught a glimpse of how great this New Orleans team could be, even with Trey Murphy III putting up a relatively poor performance shooting 6-18 on the night and several core players, including Herb Jones and Dejounte Murray, sidelined. Part of him had to wonder how much damage he could do in New Orleans.