The final time it took the ground, the Minnesota Timberwolves misplaced to the Houston Rockets, a crew driving a 13-game dropping streak.
The New Orleans Pelicans will attempt to finish its season-worst five-game dropping streak when it hosts the Timberwolves on Wednesday night time.
The Pelicans’ streak appeared all however sure to succeed in 5 video games when visiting Denver took a 19-point lead within the first half on Tuesday night time, however the house crew fought again and took a one-point lead with lower than a minute remaining.
Then Nikola Jokic put the completion on his triple-double with a bounce hook from the lane to present Denver a 99-98 lead with 16.9 seconds left. The precarious lead held up when New Orleans missed three pictures within the closing seconds.
“This game comes down to a tale of two halves,” Pelicans coach Willie Green stated. “First half wasn’t us. Even if we get down some points, which happens, I just didn’t like our energy in the spirit.”
Denver led 63-47 at halftime, however New Orleans had its finest defensive half of the season when it held the Nuggets to 36 factors within the second half.
“To (the players’) credit, in the second half, we came out with a much better effort,” Green stated. “Once we decided that we were going to try to take care of our home floor, we were right back in the game with a chance to win.”
CJ McCollum scored 20 factors to guide six Pelicans scorers into double figures — three of them reserves off the bench.
The tone for the Timberwolves’ loss was set when the host Rockets scored the primary 9 factors on their approach to a 119-114 victory on Monday.
“We needed to have a business-like approach, and we started out down 9-0,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch stated. “That pretty much told me what I was going to be in for the rest of the game.”
Finch bemoaned the Wolves’ lack of “focus,” although Anthony Edwards scored 31 factors and D’Angelo Russell matched his season excessive with 30.
“We just didn’t have enough guys play well,” Finch stated. “We needed more from everybody.”
The Wolves did welcome again middle Rudy Gobert, who had missed the earlier three video games due to groin soreness. He completed with 15 factors on 5-of-8 capturing and added 16 rebounds and 4 blocks.
“I felt pretty good,” Gobert stated. “Started to feel a little tight at the end, but much better than previous days. We’ll see how it feels (on Tuesday) and the next day, but it’s great to be back out there.”
Edwards stated he and his teammates have proven “a bad tendency” to not be centered early in opposition to groups with poor data, such because the Rockets, who’ve the worst report within the NBA after Tuesday.
“These losses hurt,” he stated. “I don’t even know what to say at this point. That’s on us (as players). If this was anybody else, we would have come out ready to play.”
The Pelicans defeated the Wolves 119-118 on December 28 in New Orleans.
The season sequence will conclude within the regular-season finale for each groups April 9 in Minneapolis.
