New Orleans Pelicans Lose Sixth Straight But At Least Show Fight Against Nuggets

The New Orleans Pelicans lose again on Saturday night, falling 116-108 to the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night. Losing another game is not ideal, but this game was at least a small step forward for the Pelicans.

New Orleans falls to 4-10 on the season and has now lost six straight. This is their third loss to the Nuggets so far this year. The good news is that this wasn't an embarrassing defeat. It was an eight-point difference, which is far better than the streak of 30-plus.

The Pelicans actually won both the second and third quarters, but had slower bookends. The major difference in this game was actually the fact that New Orleans just couldn't hit their free throws. They were just 21-of-33 from the charity stripe. In a game that was decided by eight points, that's a major difference. 

Given that it isn't a consistent problem for the team, it's slightly easier to stomach losing like that, rather than giving up 138 points again. It wasn't a perfect night on defense, but it was much better.

Denver was just 4-of-16 from the three-point line in this game. They are next to the Pelicans at the bottom of the league in that category, but they still average 10 makes and 31 attempts. New Orleans actually shot the ball well from three, 13-of-33 as a team. They would normally hope to win nights like that, but they were outscored 62-44 in the paint.

The Pelicans also got great production out of their bench in this game, a big change from the night prior.

Jordan Poole had a team-high +6 plus/minus. He had 14 points and was at least 7-of-7 on his free throws, an area he has been spectacular in. He also had two rebounds and five assists.

Jaron Pierre Jr. played last night, earlier in the day for the Laketown Squadron and then came back for this game, and looked great. The rookie put up 13 points, two rebounds, a block and a steal. He brought energy to both sides of the ball and was 2-of-5 from deep. New Orleans could certainly use that production off the bench more often.

Yves Missi also finally returned from his bone bruise, adding some much-needed rim protection. He joked after practice the other day that it felt like he hadn't seen a block in a few games. He had four in his return, along with eight rebounds, showing what he can bring to this team.

The Pelicans won't be happy with this loss, but they should at least feel good that they had a competitive game again. They were competitive against the Memphis Grizzlies for a while too, to be fair, but that one got out of hand late. New Orleans struggled at the start of the fourth quarter again, but were able to show some fight.

Sunday will be an off-day before they return to the court on Monday night against the Golden State Warriors.