Spurs (39-30), Pelicans (39-29)
SAN ANTONIO – For a third time this season Thursday, New Orleans trailed San Antonio by 15 points. The Pelicans nearly came all the way back to beat the Spurs again in AT&T Center, but the perennial Southwest Division power held on to prevail, knocking off New Orleans for the first time in 2017-18.
San Antonio pulled within a half-game of New Orleans in the standings, taking advantage partly of Anthony Davis (21 points, 14 rebounds) fouling out in the fourth quarter. The Pelicans went through a lengthy scoring drought in the third period and had difficulty getting good looks at the basket in the final minutes, particularly after Davis was disqualified.
IT WAS OVER WHEN…
Nikola Mirotic’s extremely difficult three-point attempt from the left corner in the waning seconds was well off-target, bouncing out of bounds to San Antonio. Patty Mills iced the win for the Spurs by hitting two free throws with 3.5 seconds remaining.
PELICANS PLAYER OF THE GAME
Ian Clark was instrumental in keeping New Orleans in the hunt during the second half, coming up with multiple baskets in key spots. He scored 12 of his 16 total points after intermission, accounting for about one-third of the visiting offense there. Jrue Holiday supplied 13 second-half points but needed 13 shots to do so, while Clark was an efficient 4/6 from the field, including 2/3 on treys. Davis initially had to sit due to picking up his fourth foul in the third quarter, but Clark and Holiday not only held down the fort in Davis’ absence, but drew the Pelicans closer to the Spurs on the scoreboard.
QUOTES TO NOTE
“He’s done so much for the city of New Orleans. He’s done so much for our organization and the Saints organization. We’ve just got to go out and play for him.” – Holiday on the Thursday passing of Tom Benson, owner of New Orleans’ NBA and NFL franchises
“I thought that the second half was very much like a playoff game. I thought both teams were really good defensively, and it was hard to score. We still have to have good ball movement. I thought our ball movement became a little stagnant.” – Alvin Gentry on one reason the Pelicans for once did not find a way to win a game in crunch time
“We had opportunities to win. We were down three for a while and we got some bad shots, some shots that we normally make that we missed. They were coming down and missing as well, so we had opportunities to cut the lead or even take the lead late in the fourth but we didn’t.” – Davis on New Orleans staying close but not being able to get over the top
BY THE NUMBERS
16: New Orleans turnovers, many of them costly. The Pelicans not only turned the ball over to help ignite the Spurs, but were also up against the shot clock too much in critical sequences of the fourth quarter. Manu Ginobili was in the middle of a couple particularly aggravating stretches from New Orleans’ perspective, getting into passing lanes and later drawing two key third-quarter fouls on Davis in rapid succession.
1: Times Davis has fouled out of a game this season. It was particularly frustrating to do so on a night when the whistles in general were not very common, despite it being a physical game.
60-58: Halftime score in San Antonio’s favor. The style of play in the second half resembled more of a playoff-type slugfest, with the Spurs holding a low-output 38-35 edge.