Pelicans Cap Franchise's Worst 3-Game Stretch With Embarrassing Loss To Nets

In need of an emphatic response after a horrific two-game road trip out West, the New Orleans Pelicans came out limp against the Brooklyn Nets and fell 145-111. It was about the worst possible result of this game.

This 34-point loss to the Nets brings this three-game stretch's point differential to -101, the worst in franchise history. The previous worst was -89. The thing about the previous stretches, though, is that the previous four worst stretches took place between March and April. 

This is the Pelicans losing to the Nets, Los Angeles Clippers and the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors, granted, are a good team. The Clippers and Nets combined have only five wins this year, two of those being against New Orleans. There is nothing that really excuses the effort put forth by this team over the last few games.

The Pelicans were supposed to be a defensive team, but they have just been gashed. This Brooklyn team entered with the fourth-worst offensive rating in the league. They met little resistance from New Orleans. They shot 57/49/83 splits as a team.

The thing is, the Pelicans actually didn't shoot the ball poorly in this game until later. The offense caught fire at the end of the second half, but they came out of the locker room as flat as could be once again.

There was a lot that went wrong in this game,  but the focus should be on the bigs. Karlo Matkovic was the highest of the starting lineup at -13, but he still had just four points and four rebounds in 22 minutes. Derik Queen put up nine points in 14 minutes which is good, but he had zero boards or assists and was a -22. DeAndre Jordan even saw 11 minutes of action, but New Orleans didn't see much improvement in those minutes.

Julius Randle had 17 points, Michael Porter Jr. had 22, Day'Ron Sharpe had 15, Noah Clowney had 16, Moritz Wagner had 16. Anyone with any size did anything they wanted. 

People will also focus again on Dejounte Murray in the starting lineup with a team-worst -33 with just five points in 28 minutes. The conversation has been had to death at this point, so there's nothing left to say except something has to change.

A portion of the fans that were left in the Smoothie King Center was booing as the clock hit zero. The Pelicans cannot continue like this for a third-straight season, but the year is very close to being lost very early on.