After their four-game winning streak was interrupted with a loss on Friday, the New Orleans Pelicans will be out for redemption when they open a quick two-game California road trip with a visit to the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday in Inglewood, Calif.
In an early season of wild swings, the Pelicans lost their first four games, then won four consecutive, including the last two of the streak in overtime. In a visit from the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday, New Orleans fell 115-109 after leading with less than eight minutes remaining.
Jeremiah Fears scored 24 points for the Pelicans and Karlo Matkovic added 18, while Zion Williamson was held to 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor. Williamson leads New Orleans with 20.6 points per game.
The Pelicans are adept at scoring inside and had 54 points in the paint against the Timberwolves, but they had just 12 of those in the fourth quarter when they were outscored 38-30.
“That’s what we’ll have to continue to look at,” New Orleans head coach Jamahl Mosley said after his team took just six free-throw attempts over the final 12 minutes. “Go back and see what we can do against a good team like (Minnesota) because we’ll see something similar against the Clippers in length, size at the rim and aggressive defense.”
Pelicans center Yves Missi has missed the past seven games with a bone bruise to his left knee and will not play against the Clippers.
The short-handed Clippers enter Sunday’s game on a seven-game losing streak and saw healthy fourth-quarter leads disappear in their last two defeats. The most recent of those came in a 117-116 overtime loss to the Miami Heat on Wednesday.
Los Angeles led by 10 points with 5:04 remaining against Miami and was up 106-105 with 1:32 on the clock. Rui Hachimura could have given the Clippers the lead from the free-throw line with 2.7 seconds remaining, but he made just one as the game went into overtime.
Darius Garland scored all nine of Los Angeles’ points in OT before Miami won it on Klay Thompson’s 3-pointer with one second left. But Garland also had a costly turnover with 18.3 seconds remaining in regulation.
“Well, we’re close, just not finishing the game,” Los Angeles head coach Tyronn Lue said. “Just turnovers in the fourth quarter and having the ball secure. We’re up one (late in regulation) and then we turn it over. Just little things like that … taking care of the ball.”
The Clippers committed seven of their 18 turnovers in the fourth quarter and lead the NBA with 20.1 per game. Garland averages a league-high 5.5 turnovers.
“We’ve been great for pretty much 42 minutes for two games now and then we just collectively let the pressure get to us,” said Clippers veteran Brook Lopez, who scored 20 points against the Heat and has averaged 13.5 on the season. “We’ve made a lot of turnovers and it’s with a lot of easy baskets for the other teams and we obviously have to be better.”
Former Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram has yet to play for the Clippers after undergoing right heel surgery in May that also addressed a partially torn Achilles tendon. but is close to a return.
