SAN FRANCISCO – The California Bay Area has been a very inhospitable place for New Orleans over the years, featuring only one road win since the franchise was renamed the Pelicans in 2013, including five postseason defeats. However, all of those losses came at the hands of household names like Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant. On Friday, none of those perennial All-Stars were in uniform for Golden State, but lesser-known Warriors such as Damion Lee (20 points) and Alec Burks (18 points) did plenty of damage.
After New Orleans rallied from a 20-point deficit and took a fourth-quarter edge, the Pelicans couldn’t hang on in crunch time. D’Angelo Russell made the go-ahead basket for the Warriors with 32 seconds left, resulting in Golden State improving to 16-1 at home vs. New Orleans since the 2013-14 season.
IT WAS OVER WHEN…
Lee sank two free throws with 8 seconds remaining, making it a two-possession margin. Brandon Ingram attempted an off-balance three-pointer just before the buzzer sounded, but the shot rimmed out and fell to the Warriors.
PELICANS PLAYER OF THE GAME
Lonzo Ball played one of his best games of the season, contributing in a variety of areas with 14 points, four rebounds and five steals, the latter tying his season high and just one shy of his career high. Ball was a plus-2 in his 22 minutes of action, going 6/11 from the field and 2/4 from three-point range on a night when the Pelicans again struggled offensively. New Orleans shot just 42 percent from the field and 26 percent from beyond the arc.
BY THE NUMBERS
18: Turnovers for both New Orleans and Golden State. First-half mistakes proved costly for the Pelicans, who committed eight turnovers in that period, leading to 12 Warriors points. While very short-handed, Golden State has extreme difficulty generating offense, so it was important for New Orleans not to help the Warriors in that regard.
37-22: New Orleans scoring edge in the third quarter, turning a 12-point halftime deficit into a three-point lead. JJ Redick had 13 points in the period, including 4/4 three-point accuracy.
2-1: Golden State lead in the season series. The Warriors' late-October win over the Pelicans was led by Curry, prior to injuries ravaging the five-time conference champions.
#FANFRIDAY
For Friday games during the regular season, a fan poll question will be asked on Twitter. The fifth question of 2019-20 was “Jrue Holiday became the Pelicans’ all-time leader in three-point baskets Wednesday at Minnesota. Which career franchise record would you most like to see Holiday set next and why?” The winner of fan polling was steals, with 46 percent of the votes, a category in which Holiday is 425 behind all-time leader Chris Paul. At Holiday’s career rate of 1.5 steals per game, it would take him 283 games to surpass Paul, or approximately 3 1/2 seasons. As @corey_prevost noted, “He’s been our best on-ball defender ever.”