New Orleans sustained a damaging loss in its pursuit of eighth place in the Western Conference, racing to a big first-half lead but getting outplayed by Houston after intermission. The Pelicans dropped to four games behind the No. 8 Thunder (41-30), who played later Wednesday night at San Antonio.
It was New Orleans’ fourth consecutive defeat, after it had moved into eighth place ahead of OKC a week ago. The Pelicans have two more games left on this week’s homestand, but are down to only 11 games remaining to close the gap on the Thunder in the 82-game regular season schedule.
Anthony Davis posted 24 points, 14 rebounds, three steals and three blocks, but after the game he walked back onto the Smoothie King Center hardwood in full uniform to work on his free throws. Davis went just 6-for-14 from the foul line, his worst night of the season. He entered Wednesday at 82.8 percent this season from the stripe.
IT WAS OVER WHEN…
Eric Gordon was forced to intentionally miss his second free throw with 1.7 seconds left, with the Pelicans trailing by two points and having no timeouts remaining. James Harden gave Houston a 95-92 lead with 3.3 seconds left by splitting two free throws. Gordon sank his first foul shot to make it 95-93. Tyreke Evans appeared to get a baseline jumper off before the final buzzer, but the attempt fell short.
PELICANS PLAYER OF THE GAME
Tyreke Evans was one of the few Pelicans who enjoyed a good shooting performance, scoring equally effectively on drives to the basket and jumpers. Evans was 4-for-6 from three-point range, but the rest of the squad went just 1-for-9 from beyond the arc. Overall, the point guard was 10 of 16 from the field and racked up a game-best 28 points.
PELICANS UNSUNG CONTRIBUTOR
It wasn’t a great night for New Orleans’ role players, but Alexis Ajinca was solid in his 15 minutes of action, finishing with eight points and five rebounds. The 7-foot-2 native of France scored four points in each half, including a tip-in and jumper early in the fourth quarter.
QUOTES TO NOTE
"I just wanted to be on the floor. I had to do whatever I needed to do to stay on the floor." – Anthony Davis on returning to the game after he had gone to the locker room due to hitting his right shoulder against Houston's Corey Brewer, the same shoulder Davis injured twice last month
"I missed eight free throws. I don't feel comfortable missing eight free throws, especially when we lost by two. I just don't like it. I don't like missing free throws, especially throughout the game, when we needed them. I missed them, so I wanted to go out there and try to figure it out." – Anthony Davis on why he worked on foul shots after the game, after the arena had emptied
"We didn't execute as well as we wanted to and we came up short. This is a really tough pill to swallow." – Quincy Pondexter on the loss
"We stopped attacking and settled for jump shots. (Houston) started getting layups and that's when they're at their best." – Tyreke Evans on the in-game turnaround
BY THE NUMBERS
8: Anthony Davis missed free throws, his most misfires in a game all season. In fact, Davis had not missed more than two free throws in any game since going 6-for-9 vs. New York in December
59-36: Houston scoring advantage in the middle quarters
37-23: Houston rebounding advantage through three quarters. New Orleans closed the gap in the fourth period to 43-37
#TAKEFLIGHT QUESTION OF THE NIGHT
How much do the Pelicans miss Jrue Holiday and Ryan Anderson as they've faced some of the West's best teams?
From @MattFlora_TOP: miss Holiday and Anderson for the past 2 months
From @TheCarter: drastically, we have basically changed the game plan completely because of their injuries
From @I_am_J9911: they missed them since January. It's been a great ride but it's wait to next year.
From @cfayNOLA: #flamethrower