The New Orleans Pelicans were in control of the Monday night game against the Indiana Pacers until the minute. Then, they fell apart.
The Pacers scored six unanswered points in the final 21 seconds to send the game to overtime, where they got the 118-116 victory. According to ESPN’s Andrew Lopez, teams were 8,104-2 when leading by at least six points in the final 25 seconds entering that night.
Now, three teams have lost such a game.
Steven Adams has been on the losing end twice.
The last time this happened was on March 20, 2018, when the Oklahoma City Thunder were beating the Boston Celtics by six with 25 seconds to go but ended up losing 100-99.
After a pair of Russell Westbrook free throws put the Thunder up 98-92, Jayson Tatum drained a 2. Westbrook was intentionally fouled to go back to the line with 16.8 seconds remaining. He made one of the free throws and the Thunder led by 4.
At the 12.7-second mark, Terry Rozier drained a 3 to make it a two-point game.
Carmelo Anthony missed both free throws and the Celtics called a timeout. Marcus Morris hit the game-winning 3-pointer.
Of course Adams wasn’t the reason for either loss. It’s just a peculiarity that such occurrence has only happened three times in NBA history, according to ESPN, and two of which happened in the last four seasons and both involved Adams.
The Pelicans’ next game is actually against the Thunder, where they will try to defeat Oklahoma City for the second time early in this season.
