Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid's MVP-level dominance overpowered the New Orleans Pelicans despite strong efforts from Saddiq Bey on Saturday night.
The New Orleans Pelicans played three close quarters against the Philadelphia 76ers, but an awful second quarter ended up dooming them in a 124-114 loss on Saturday night.
With the loss, the Pelicans fall to 13-38 on the year. It was the weakest showing of the new starting lineup, which is fair given the quick turnaround and a back-to-back.
It's important just to have that group healthy right now. If Zion Williamson plays in the next game, which he should barring a major surprise, it will be his longest consecutive active streak at 26.
Williamson's performance on Saturday night is where the problems began. It was a mixture of the team not setting him up and him not being aggressive enough for most of it.
Whatever the reason, six shot attempts simply are not enough. He's only had fewer once in his career, and they lost that game as well. Williamson turned up the intensity late and helped New Orleans get back into it for a moment, but this could have been a different outcome had he shown up earlier.
Saddiq Bey has been fantastic as of late. He scored 34 points on 12-of-19 from the field. He was the only reason that it was a game at all. The Pelicans just shouldn't need him to take over as much as he did.
Trey Murphy is another starter who only started to get aggressive late. He's been in a bit of a shooting slump, 7-of-40 (17.5%) from three over his last three games. It's nothing to worry about, just something that they have needed to overcome.
They had mostly overcome it, but the other games didn't have a Joel Embiid to worry about. They did a great job of containing Tyrese Maxey, but Embiid did enough damage for both of them.
Embiid finished with 40 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. New Orleans already struggles at stopping bigs; having one playing at an MVP level didn't make things easier.
The Pelicans are still playing much better basketball than before, but they still need better offense and defense in the clutch.
New Orleans will return to the court on the road against the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday, February 2.