Zion Williamson almost stole a pass near midcourt that would have given the New Orleans Pelicans a chance to force overtime and steal a win Friday night.<\/p>\n
But he couldn\u2019t gain control of the ball and the Phoenix Suns ended up dribbling out the clock to hand the Pelicans a 118-116 loss.<\/p>\n
Those final few seconds pretty much summed up the Pelicans\u2019 six-game trip to the West Coast.<\/p>\n
Oh, so close.<\/p>\n
But just not quite there yet.<\/p>\n
The Pelicans went 3-3 on the road trip.<\/p>\n
They very well could have gone 5-1.<\/p>\n
I know what you\u2019re probably saying: \u201cCoulda, woulda, shoulda.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pels beat the Utah Jazz (twice) and the Sacramento Kings. The Jazz and the Kings, both tanking down the stretch, are the only two teams in the Western Conference with worse records than the Pels (20-45). So the Pels handled their business by beating teams they are supposed to beat.<\/p>\n
But the Pels went 0-3 against three teams (L.A, Clippers, L.A. Lakers and Suns) that will either be in the playoffs or play-in tournament. The Pels had a lackluster performance against the Clippers, but had chances against the Lakers and Suns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Pelicans had the Lakers on the ropes Tuesday night, but couldn\u2019t deliver the knockout. They led by 94-86 lead with 7:20 remaining before getting outscored 24-7 the rest of the way. On Friday night, it was just the opposite. They trailed by as many as 14 points in the fourth quarter and then climbed out before falling short. There were some missed opportunities. Dejounte Murray, so instrumental in the comeback, missed a layup in the final minute. And Williamson missed a free throw with 8.6 seconds left that could have trimmed the deficit to one.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was a good fight,\u201d said Pelicans\u2019 interim head coach James Borrego. \u201cWe could\u2019ve given in. We kept battling down 12 and 13 and kept clawing in there and found a way to make it a one possession game. Overall, a good road trip. Could\u2019ve been better. We probably had two wins there that we let slip from our fingertips. Good battle. It\u2019s a new group that\u2019s playing together and we\u2019re going to find our way and figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The line between winning and losing in the NBA is a thin one. This trip showed that.<\/p>\n
It also showed how competitive the Pels can be when healthy. For the first time this season, the Pelicans played with a fully healthy roster for two games on this road trip. The results were losses to the Lakers and the Suns.<\/p>\n
But overall, Borrego liked what he saw from his team.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a positive (trip) in that we were in every game,\u201d Borrego said. \u201cWe built momentum. We were competitive throughout every single game. I love our spirit, our fight, the identify on both sides of the ball. We\u2019ve got guys in and out of the lineup, so it\u2019s a little funky right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murray, who returned two weeks ago after missing over a year with a torn Achilles, sat out two games on the trip because he isn\u2019t yet playing in both games of a back-to-back. His presence was felt Friday though as he finished with 15 points, eight rebounds and five assists. He also was credited with two steals.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe turned that game with his defensive tenacity,\u201d Borrego said. \u201cThat\u2019s what makes him special. He can get out there on the ball and hawk the ball and make big plays. It\u2019s great to see him making progress and getting more comfortable with our group.\u201d<\/p>\n
All five starters scored in double figures Friday. The night before, the Pelicans got major minutes from nine players in the win over the Kings. They’ll need similar performances as they take on these last 17 games.<\/p>\n
The next one is Sunday when the Pels host the Washington Wizards at the Smoothie King Center.<\/p>\n
The Pelicans have won their last five games against the Wizards. Based on how the Pels played on the road trip against struggling teams, that streak should extend to six straight on Sunday.<\/p>\n
But they will finish the week with a home game against the Toronto Raptors and then a road trip to Houston to play the Rockets.<\/p>\n
Those are the type games the Pels need to start finding a way to win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zion Williamson almost stole a pass near midcourt that would have given the New Orleans Pelicans a chance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,5498,6,478,470,4073,4072,675],"class_list":{"0":"post-645222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-pelicans","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-hardwall","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-new-orleans","12":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","13":"tag-neworleans","14":"tag-neworleanspelicans","15":"tag-pelicans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116187723995403638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}