Despite a fully healthy lineup, late-game struggles sealed the New Orleans Pelicans' fate against the Los Angeles Lakers.
The New Orleans Pelicans' poor performance in the final two minutes will overshadow what should be a celebrated day, as they fall 110-101 to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night. The Pelicans will drop to 19-44 on the year.
The main thing about this game for New Orleans was just the fact that they were able to field a healthy group of players. As soon as Dejounte Murray came back, Trey Murphy and Zion Williamson had small injury issues. Not tonight, everyone was available.
It always felt like, on paper, when healthy, this should be a team that is able to compete in the playoffs. There is more talent on the roster than most people give credit for. The product on the court has always just a bit worse.
A large part of it is injuries. Last year Murray, Williamson and Murphy played just 78 minutes together all year. Herb Jones did not participate in any of it. Tuesday night was the first night that all four played together.
It wasn't perfect, but there were some signs of the positives that they would hope for.
Murray and Jones were active in passing lanes and disrupting the Lakers. They combined for five steals and Los Angeles turned the ball over 20 times.
Murphy had a better outing after doing just fine in his return from the shoulder injury. In this one, he had 21 points on 3-for-8 from three. He also had eight rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Williamson had 24 points and four rebounds with a steal after missing the last game with an ankle injury. Very nice to see that issue last just one game and now he's back and looks like he didn't miss a step.
Even Saddiq Bey, starting instead of a center, had another 18-point outing.
The biggest problem here was that they just didn't have anyone take over and deliver consistent offense down the stretch. New Orleans was within two points in the final two and a half minutes, but were outscored 10-3 down that stretch.
The Pelicans made just one field goal in that time. Murray's made layup and missed three were the only field goals attempted. That simply can't happen for this team to succeed in the clutch. They can trust Murray to facilitate, but Williamson and Murphy should be getting far more looks.
New Orleans will continue it's west coast trip on Thursday night against the Sacramento Kings at 9 pm CT.