Grizzlies (14-8), Pelicans (7-15)
New Orleans has dropped several nail-biters in bitter fashion over the initial month-plus of the season, but Monday’s defeat may qualify as the most difficult to accept. The Pelicans led by three points at both the end of regulation and the first overtime period, but Grizzles three-pointers by Marc Gasol and Troy Daniels, respectively, forced extra basketball. A long night of Southwest Division action finally concluded in the second overtime, when New Orleans had a chance to answer those earlier trifectas, but Pelicans guard Langston Galloway’s right-corner three-pointer was a bit long. Gasol gave Memphis its final 110-108 edge with a high-degree-of-difficulty fadeaway jumper at 1:16 of double OT.
IT WAS OVER WHEN…
Trailing 110-108 in the waning seconds of double OT, Anthony Davis dribbled into the lane and was forced to fire up a tough layup that missed. After a scramble for the ball, Gasol secured the rebound, but New Orleans forced a jump ball with 3 seconds to go. The Pelicans managed to control the tap and pass to Galloway, who was guarded by two Grizzlies defenders but got off a tough shot. The potential game-winner bounded off the rim to seal Memphis’ dramatic victory.
PELICANS PLAYER OF THE GAME
For the second straight time vs. Memphis this season, Galloway came up with a much-needed quality shooting performance. Playing major minutes Monday to help fill the shoes of the injured starting backcourt of Jrue Holiday and E'Twaun Moore (both out due to toe injuries), the Baton Rouge native delivered 26 points, tying his career high. He got scorching-hot as the night progressed, sinking four three-pointers during the fourth quarter and overtime sessions. He finished 9/19 from the field, highlighted by 6/13 accuracy from beyond the arc.
PELICANS UNSUNG CONTRIBUTOR
Backup center Alexis Ajinca hasn’t played consistently throughout the season, but given the Pelicans’ low numbers roster-wise Monday, it seemed likely all nine players available would get a chance to contribute. Ajinca took advantage of his opportunity to be on the floor by registering a season-best nine points and six rebounds. The native of France was also a factor defensively, blocking two shots and altering others.
QUOTES TO NOTE
“We tip our hat to those guys.” – Solomon Hill (nine points, seven rebounds, five assists) giving credit to a veteran Grizzlies team for figuring out a way to keep prolonging the game and eventually win it
“AD was tired. But I mean, as a tired player, he’s better than anybody else out there. He had to be on the floor.” – Alvin Gentry on the fatigue factor and why Davis played 48:29 in the second game of a back-to-back. Davis also logged 40-plus minutes Sunday at Oklahoma City
“We’ve just got to keep fighting. No one’s going to feel sorry for us. As far as we’re concerned, we’ve got to dig ourselves out of this. It doesn’t matter who’s hurt or not playing. We’ve got to find a way to win games.” – Gentry on the team’s outlook, now eight games under .500 record-wise
BY THE NUMBERS
7: Consecutive wins by Memphis over division counterpart New Orleans. Both victories this season have gone to overtime and been low-scoring affairs through regulation.
28, 17, 4: Points, rebounds, blocks for Davis, who started slowly with just three points in the first half, but piled up 15 in the third quarter. He had to take some tough shots from the field and went 10/27.
14, 13: Turnovers for Memphis and New Orleans, respectively. You could say it wasn’t a well-played game offensively, but you can’t blame mistakes with the ball for that. Those are both very good and low tallies for a game that extended to 58 minutes in duration.
40.4: Memphis shooting percentage from the field, which actually was better than NOLA’s 39.4 rate.