Wizards (38-28), Pelicans (38-27)
New Orleans just put together its best stretch of basketball in seven years, winning 10 straight games despite playing without four-time All-Star DeMarcus Cousins. The Pelicans’ first attempt Friday at playing without both Cousins and Anthony Davis did not turn out quite as favorably.
Washington took control in the first half, building a 15-point halftime advantage, en route to limiting New Orleans to an extremely rare poor performance on offense. The Pelicans had scored at least 114 points during every game of their 10-game winning streak, shooting at least 50 percent from the field in three of the last four games. Those trends came to a halt Friday, with the hosts misfiring to the tune of 41.1 percent from the floor and 2/14 from three-point range through three quarters. New Orleans only had 62 points through three periods.
New Orleans dropped to 3-4 this season when Davis doesn’t play, as well as 11-6 without Cousins. Davis missed Friday’s game to an ankle sprain, but third-year head coach Alvin Gentry was hopeful that Davis will be able to play Sunday vs. Utah.
“I’m assuming that he will (return),” Gentry said of an appearance against the Jazz. “I don’t know that for sure. If he’s healthy and ready to go, we’ll play him. If not, we’ve got to line up and play.”
IT WAS OVER WHEN…
Washington’s Bradley Beal drained a left-wing three-pointer on a fast break, giving Washington a 75-50 lead with 2:57 remaining in the third quarter. The Pelicans cut into the lead somewhat over the next several minutes, but the Wizards regained a 25-point lead midway through the fourth quarter.
PELICANS PLAYER OF THE GAME
Reserve forward Darius Miller broke out of what’s been a recent quiet stretch for him, becoming the first Pelican to connect on a three-pointer Friday after a long team-wide drought that extended into the second half. Miller finished with 20 points, featuring 4/8 three-point accuracy. The only New Orleans starter to crack double digits in scoring was Rajon Rondo, who netted 11 points.
QUOTES TO NOTE
“I thought it hurt the flow of what we were trying to do. We struggled so much offensively the first two quarters. We’ve been starting the games really great. I don’t think we ever got into any kind of flow offensively. Part of it was (Washington is) pretty good defensively.” – Alvin Gentry on the impact on the offense of not having Davis in uniform
“It was not our day. We’ll be fine. We’ve just got to stay positive, get back to the practice facility (tomorrow) and get some work in.” – Nikola Mirotic on New Orleans’ rough Friday night
“We know we didn’t play with AD, our best player. Hopefully he’ll be back next game. We just need to stick together. Defensively, we need to step up a little bit more, especially in transition.” – Mirotic, after being asked how the Pelicans deal with the losing streak ending in disappointing fashion
BY THE NUMBERS
18-4: Washington advantage in second-chance points.
49-38: Wizards rebounding advantage, led by eight boards from starting center Marcin Gortat and seven by Otto Porter.
6/20: New Orleans three-point shooting, just one more made trey than its lowest total of the season. The Pelicans sank only five against the same Wizards team in a December meeting.