Spurs (63-12), Pelicans (27-47)
SAN ANTONIO – Under some of the most daunting circumstances an NBA team will ever face, New Orleans hoped to play competitively against a dominant San Antonio team, on the Spurs’ home floor. The Pelicans managed to do that – at least for one half. En route to setting the all-time NBA record for most consecutive home wins to start a season (38), San Antonio led just 46-39 at intermission, but went on a 20-10 run to build its biggest edge to that stage at 66-49. New Orleans pulled back within 11, but the hosts stretched the lead back to 73-55 by the end of three quarters. Though the Spurs have rested key players sporadically in recent games, the Pelicans received no such help Wednesday, with virtually every important San Antonio contributor in uniform. Meanwhile, New Orleans again played without any of its top six scorers this season and only had nine men in uniform.
IT WAS OVER WHEN…
San Antonio’s Kyle Anderson nailed a jumper to push the margin to 98-90 with 27 seconds remaining. New Orleans made matters a bit interesting when James Ennis dropped in a difficult corner three-pointer to cut it to 96-90, but the Spurs were able to bleed 23 seconds off the game clock prior to Anderson’s shot.
PELICANS PLAYER OF THE GAME
Playing his third game with New Orleans after signing a 10-day contract, Jordan Hamilton made a start at shooting guard and led his team for much of the night in scoring, finishing with 14 points on 6/14 shooting. Hamilton gained confidence early by sinking a couple jumpers. Ultimately, Alexis Ajinca topped the Pelicans with 18 points, one of seven NOLA players who posted double-digit scoring out of the nine who played.
PELICANS UNSUNG CONTRIBUTOR
On Day 1 of his Pelicans career, Ennis arrived at the AT&T Center roughly two hours before tip-off but was thrown right into the fire. The second-year pro call-up from the D-League responded well, particularly after getting a few minutes under his belt. Ennis scored 10 points in the fourth quarter alone, part of his 13-point game in 24 minutes of action. He was 3/4 from three-point range.
QUOTES TO NOTE
“Our guys have been playing extremely hard, competing until the final horn, and that’s all we can ask of them. We dug ourselves a little hole at the start of the third quarter, and it was like an uphill battle from there.” – Alvin Gentry on his team’s effort, as well as when Wednesday’s game swung in San Antonio’s favor
“I feel like everyone from the new guy, to the new-new guy who just came in today, everybody contributed. We were playing good basketball. I think we missed a couple easy shots at the basket. Myself, I missed so many shots at the basket that I usually make. When it’s like that, it’s tough… but we did a pretty good job defensively. They hit a couple tough shots at the end.” – Ajinca on the Pelicans’ overall play. The ‘new-new guy’ is Ennis
“Those guys played well tonight. New team, new system, probably don’t know the plays or maybe know everybody’s name. But you go out there, compete, play hard.” – Tim Frazier (seventh game in eight with double-digit points) on the performances by Hamilton and Ennis in their third and first games, respectively, with New Orleans
BY THE NUMBERS
8/17: New Orleans three-point shooting, which kept the Pelicans close in the first half and sparked their late-game rally.
24/63: New Orleans two-point shooting. The Pelicans were just 17/40 in the paint. The Spurs were 17/32.
31, 25, 24: Minutes logged by D-League call-ups Hamilton, Frazier and Ennis, respectively. Each of them signed with New Orleans in March.