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New Orleans Pelicans Normally Reliable Bench Falls Apart In Loss To Clippers
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- New Orleans Pelicans Normally Reliable Bench Falls Apart In Loss To Clippers
(Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images)
A tiring weekend of Louisiana sports concluded with a disappointing performance from the New Orleans Pelicans on an 8 pm CT tipoff against the now 2-7 Los Angeles Clippers , as the Pelicans fell 139-123 on Sunday night.
New Orleans picks up its second straight loss to drop to 4-6 on the season. The Clippers had lost their last seven going into this game, which only makes a blowout sting even more.
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Now, having played 10 games, it's clear that this team has a much higher ceiling than they have had in a while, but the consistency is not there at all.
The normally reliable bench, one of the league's highest-scoring second units, had a very ugly performance in this game. The Los Angeles bench ran circles around them. Saddiq Bey shot 3-of-12, Herb Jones was a -23 and Trendon Watford had his worst game in this uniform. Four of the five bench players who saw the court before garbage time ended up worse than -10 in the plus/minus.
New Orleans was able to make a couple of runs to keep it close at times, but the Clippers ran away with it. Jeremiah Fears, Trey Murphy and Zion Williamson all had great individual performances, at least.
Fears has had a few games like tonight that provide glimpses into the player that he can become on a consistent basis. He dropped 25 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals on a -1.
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The starting backcourt still leaves much to be desired. Dejounte Murray finished with a +4 in his minutes, but had six points on 1-of-6 from the field, with three rebounds and three assists.
This is the night that the team would love to have from Murphy every night, and know he's capable of. He had 26 points on 17 shots with seven rebounds and three assists. Fears and Murphy combined for 7-of-14 from three, but the rest of the team was just 3-of-15.
Williamson had 25 points on just nine shots, all of which he made.
The Pelicans really just weren't able to play their system enough. They lost the rebounding battle by one. Los Angeles had 34 assists to just 23. New Orleans turned the ball over 16 times, but only turned the Clippers over 11 times. The Pelicans were even outscored in the paint. It's nearly impossible to win like that while also being outshot from three, but that part is expected each night.
New Orleans isn't going to get a break, literally or figuratively, as they face the Golden State Warriors, who have won seven straight, for a 9 pm CT tip.
