Pelicans (26-21), Hornets (19-27)
CHARLOTTE – For only the third time this season, New Orleans did not have a 20-point scorer in Wednesday’s visit to Charlotte, but a balanced offense spearheaded another January road victory. Seven different Pelicans tallied at least eight points as Alvin Gentry extended his rotation for the first time recently, a pivotal factor in New Orleans improving to 8-3 this month.
It’s only just past the midway point of the regular season, yet New Orleans has already matched its number of road victories from a season ago. The Pelicans posted away win No. 13 in their 25th road game; they finished 13-28 in 2016-17.
IT WAS OVER WHEN…
Charlotte's Nicolas Batum tossed up an airball on a right-wing desperation three-point attempt with less than 10 seconds remaining in regulation, giving New Orleans possession back with a five-point edge. Jrue Holiday scored six critical points down the stretch after the game was tied at 92; Anthony Davis came up with a steal of a Kemba Walker pass that all but sealed the outcome with the Pelicans leading 100-96. Davis’ two free throws with 20 seconds remaining had doubled the visitors’ lead from two to four.
PELICANS PLAYER OF THE GAME
The group of reserves off New Orleans’ bench made extremely valuable contributions, totaling 27 points, including 5/12 three-point shooting. Dante Cunningham turned in one of his best performances of the season by producing nine points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes, while Jameer Nelson and Darius Miller each supplied eight points. Nelson sank key second-half baskets to help keep New Orleans in front by a small margin.
QUOTES TO NOTE
“We did it as a team. There are some nights where your stars can’t be the stars, because of different reasons. A lot of guys stepped up tonight.” – DeMarcus Cousins (16 points, 13 rebounds) on postgame radio, discussing the collective effort to beat Charlotte
“(Charlotte was) trying to take me and DeMarcus out (of the offense). Other guys made plays. It was a great team win tonight.” – Davis on the same subject
“The ball was just moving. Not one guy was hot; everybody was hot. We all contributed. It made the game a lot easier, a lot of fun tonight.” – Cunningham on NOLA getting production from many sources
“Dwight (Howard) didn’t want to leave my body tonight (when Charlotte was on defense). That’s their rim protector. You could kind of tell his main concern was to make sure I didn’t score. We just kind of took advantage of it. I told Jrue the paint was wide-open. Jrue is a big guard. I don’t think anybody in the league can guard him one-on-one. He was able to take advantage of it.” – Cousins on Holiday coming up with big fourth-quarter baskets again, something he also did in tight road wins at New York and Boston
BY THE NUMBERS
18/31: Charlotte foul shooting on a poor night for the Hornets in every category. The Pelicans held them to 42.4 percent shooting from the field and 6/21 on three-pointers.
1: New Orleans turnover in the fourth quarter. It was a sloppy night through three periods, with the visitors committing 15 turnovers, but they took much better care of the ball in crunch time.
6-1: Pelicans record in their last seven games, the best seven-game span of the regular season. New Orleans also improved to 14-6 against the Eastern Conference, two-thirds of the way through their slate against that half of the league.