The emotional high the New Orleans Pelicans were on this time two weeks ago has faded.<\/p>\n
The Pelicans\u2019 five-game home winning streak and their 10-5 record since the All-Star break don\u2019t feel quite as promising now as it did then.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what happens when such a solid run is followed by a five-game losing streak the Pelicans will take into their upcoming west coast trip. The Pelicans play the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday followed by a Friday night game against the Sacramento Kings.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll be looking to remove the bitter taste of their current skid that was capped by Sunday\u2019s 134-102 home loss to the Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always responded,\u201d Pelicans interim coach James Borrego. \u201cWe\u2019ve had our moments where we haven\u2019t been our best. I think the biggest thing right now is responding to it and finishing the season out in a competitive fashion, which is what we\u2019ve done for the bulk of this stretch.<\/p>\n
“Over the last 70 games, this group has responded and played with competitive spirit and fought every night. I didn\u2019t see that for 48 minutes in the last game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 32-point loss to the Rockets is tied for the worst loss of the season. The Pels (25-51) also lost by 32 points to the Boston Celtics in the third game of the season.<\/p>\n
Now there are just six games remaining, and the Pelicans will miss the playoffs for the second straight season. It\u2019s also the first time in franchise history the Pelicans have lost 50 or more games in back-to-back seasons, but Borrego\u2019s message to his team has been to run through the finish line.<\/p>\n
\u201cWin games, compete and just play our brand of basketball,\u201d forward Trey Murphy said.<\/p>\n
Murphy has missed the past three games with an ankle injury, but Borrego said \u201che\u2019s definitely in the mix\u201d to return Thursday or Friday.<\/p>\n
Borrego said Monday that he hasn\u2019t had any discussions with executive vice president of basketball operations Joe Dumars to shut any star players down for these last six games of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cSix games is still a lot of basketball to continue to build habits and get better,\u201d Borrego said. \u201cYoung guys and vets, finishing strong. You don\u2019t want to go into the offseason on the down swing. You want to keep the spirit uplifted and the momentum in the right direction, which is what we have done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, at least until the previous five games when they lost to four of the top teams in the Eastern Conference (Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons and Toronto Raptors) and then the Rockets.<\/p>\n
The losses to the Knicks, Pistons and Raptors all came on the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe road trip was a tough road trip,\u201d Borrego said. \u201cSome winnable games there. But now it\u2019s about finishing strong. It\u2019s our job. We\u2019ve got to finish strong. Do your job and be competitive and bring it every single day. That\u2019s the job of a professional.\u201d<\/p>\n
Borrego wasn\u2019t pleased in how his second unit played in Sunday\u2019s loss to the Rockets. The Pelicans got outscored 39-18 in the second quarter of that one. When asked what went wrong in that quarter, Borrego was blunt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI subbed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But Borrego liked the way his team responded at Tuesday\u2019s practice. The energy was high and the practice was competitive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is now to respond in Portland,\u201d Borrego said. \u201cThere is no doubt this group will respond and have a great effort on Thursday night. They don\u2019t want this to end. That\u2019s when you know you\u2019re going in the right direction.<\/p>\n
“This group really cares about each other. Nobody wants to see the season come to an end. Now we have to do our part to make sure this doesn\u2019t happen next season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The emotional high the New Orleans Pelicans were on this time two weeks ago has faded. The Pelicans\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,6,478,470,4073,4072,675],"class_list":{"0":"post-693669","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-nba","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanspelicans","14":"tag-pelicans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116334682836218632","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693669","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=693669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}