Despite Lonzo Ball tying a season-high with seven three-pointers, the Pelicans suffered one of their worst losses of the season on Tuesday, falling to Minnesota 139-134
The Good: The offense
It’s hard to find many positives in a gut-punch of a loss but the Pelican offense was cooking all night. New Orleans finished with 134 points, shot 52% from the field, 35.9% from the three-point line and tallied 37 assists.
All five starters scored in double figures while Josh Hart had 11 off the bench. Four guys scored at least 24 points. No starter shot worse than 52% for the game.
Unfortunately, basketball has two sides of the court.
Honorable mention: Nothing. Nothing was good about this game.
The Bad: A crippling loss
The last thing a team like the Pelicans can do when trying to make up ground in a playoff chase is lose to a sub-.500 team. The Timberwolves had won two games since Jan. 11 but New Orleans brought a putrid defensive effort.
Minnesota scoring 139 points is inexcusable. The Timberwolves offense is not good enough to score 139 points without a defense playing terribly as the Pelicans did on Tuesday.
It’s not quite a playoff race-ending loss only because the Pelicans have two more games against the Grizzlies but the margin for error, which was remarkably thin, just decreased to nothing. New Orleans can’t afford another misstep the rest of the season.
Totally inexcusable loss.
Honorable Mentions: Free throw shooting, pick and roll defense, late-game offense
The Ball: Season-best performance
Lonzo Ball tied his season-high for three-pointers made by connecting on seven of his 10 attempts. Included in that was a late, off-balance three-pointer in the final seconds that gave the Pelicans one last chance at a comeback.
In total, Ball finished with 26 points to go with eight assists and five rebounds. While he did have six turnovers, only one of those came in the second half. He also finished with a team-best plus-minus of +5 in 33 minutes, meaning the Pelicans were outscored by 10 in the 15 minutes he wasn’t on the court on the night.