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Postgame wrap: Mavericks 123, Pelicans 116

For a second straight game, New Orleans was locked in a back-and-forth matchup on national TV that wasn’t decided until the final minutes. Despite playing the Mavericks fairly evenly – as they also had three nights earlier against the Raptors – the Pelicans again couldn’t pull off a victory. Dallas surged back from a 14-point first-half deficit, partly behind a 45-23 edge in the second quarter, in handing New Orleans a defeat in an ESPN game.

"I thought the second quarter was a disaster, defensively, for us," Alvin Gentry said of the pivotal period. "We were bad in transition. We were bad keeping the ball in front of us. We were bad getting out to three-point shooters. I think they had six threes in the second quarter. That being said, we still put ourselves in a position to (win) – we came all the way back and actually took the lead."

IT WAS OVER WHEN…

Dallas guard Delon Wright ripped the ball away from New Orleans for a clinching steal, leading to Mavericks free throws with 14 seconds left and a 121-116 edge. A few possessions earlier, Luka Doncic banked in a vital three-pointer to make it 120-113 at 1:22.

PELICANS PLAYER OF THE GAME

With much of the starting lineup struggling to make shots, Brandon Ingram led New Orleans in scoring by a healthy margin, depositing 25 points on 10/20 accuracy from the field. Ingram went 4/7 from three-point range and also notched eight rebounds and three blocks. The Pelicans' three perimeter starters combined to shoot just 9/30 from the field and 4/17 from three-point distance.

BY THE NUMBERS

14: New Orleans turnovers, leading to 20 Dallas points, a stat Gentry alluded to in his postgame comments, referencing the costly nature of the miscues. The Mavericks only had 11 turnovers.

18/25: Pelicans shooting in the first quarter, which equals 72 percent.

25/73: Pelicans shooting in quarters 2-4, meaning they made a sliver more than one out of every three attempts from the field.

#FANFRIDAY

For all 14 Friday games during New Orleans’ regular season, a Pelicans fan poll question will be asked on Twitter. The first question of 2019-20 was “Which Southwest Division club has the most potential to develop a noteworthy rivalry with New Orleans in the next 3-5 years and why? Dallas received the largest share of the vote at 60 percent, followed by Memphis (21), Houston (14) and San Antonio (4). Here were some of the best responses for each team:

Mavericks

From @JJackz_7: Timelines are the same. They have young, growing talent with KP and Luka and Pels have Zion, Zo, BI and Jrue. They’ll have to go through each other to get to their goals

Grizzlies

From @Casedillas_: Star players align positions, both teams are going to be west contenders around 5 years. A lot of game 7s in those series.

Rockets

From @BigCheezie: Driving distance away. They have a solid team. We have a young team. Run and gun versus the step back.

Spurs

From @Chris95580075: They always seems to be the team standing between us and the playoffs. Popovich is going to keep them competitive. I think their experience could counter our youth, and make them the team in the division we have the hardest time winning against.