Pelicans Get Frustrated, Dominated By Warriors During Second Half Meltdown
The New Orleans Pelicans were outscored 74-46 in the second half as they fell to the Golden State Warriors, 109-120.
Brandon Ingram scored 26 points to lead the Pelicans, but was held to 10 points after halftime, and went scoreless in the fourth as the Warriors pulled away.
Steph Curry led all scorers with 39. Curry scored 22 in the second half, including 13 in the third quarter.
New Orleans finished the first half with a 63-46 advantage. However, the Warriors came out of the locker with a spark. Donte DiVencenzo's tip dunk off of a Curry missed three got the home crowd going. Jonas Valanciunas traveled to turn it over on the Pelicans' first possession of the quarter, and DiVencenzo followed that with a three-point play.
Trey Murphy III would give it away on the next possession, which would lead to a three-pointer by Klay Thompson.
With just over a minute gone in the second half, the lead had been cut to nine.
The Pelicans would respond with a three by Herb Jones and an Ingram jumper, but it only served to set up Curry's big finish.
With 5:28 to play in the third Steph knocked down a triple to trim the Golden State deficit to single digits, making the score 76-68 Pelicans.
Curry then connected on three more from long distance in the final 97 seconds of the quarter. After his outburst and a Jordan Poole dunk the Pelicans saw what had been a 20-point lead in the first half reduced down to four points entering the fourth quarter.
New Orleans tried to fight back off the ropes. Josh Richardson's three-pointer with 10:44 remaining put the Pels up 94-89.
Unfortunately, Golden State could smell the blood in the water like the sharks circling Alcatraz. The Warriors immediately went on an 8-0 run and outscored the Pelicans 16-4 over the next five minutes to seize the lead at 105-98.
The Pelicans wouldn't get any closer than four points before Willie Green pulled his starters with just a minute remaining.
New Orleans opened the game showing no ill effects on the second night of a back-to-back.
Ingram had nine points in the first quarter and got to his spots as he had in the previous five games, but his shots just weren't going down. Ingram was 5-for-13 in the first half, putting up 16 points. Trey Murphy was still accurate from deep, knocking down a trio of threes in the first half on his way to 11 points.
Defensively, the Pelicans were solid as they held the Warriors to below 50 percent shooting. Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole were non-factors and Draymond Green was fortunate to not have been ejected.
But what could have been a major victory slipped through their fingertips over the final 24 minutes.
This is another one that got away from the Pelicans when it really shouldn't have.
With the defeat, the Pelicans fall back to .500 yet remain in eighth place in the Western Conference standings. New Orleans is 1.5 games behind the Warriors for sixth and one game ahead of the 11th-place Dallas Mavericks.
The Pels must put this loss behind them quickly with just one day off before they face the Denver Nuggets to end their final extended road trip of the season.
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