The New Orleans Pelicans turned around a slow first half with strong defensive showing in the third quarter to down the Washington Wizards, 118-107.
Jrue Holiday had a team-high 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting but it was the Pelicans’ bench, which scored 44 points, that pushed New Orleans to a victory.
The Good: Second-half defense
After a slow start to the game, the Pelicans came out in the third quarter and turned to a full-court defense to turn the game around. The result was a huge run that turned a halftime deficit into a double-digit lead.
New Orleans outscored Washington 37-25 in the third period and grabbed control of the game by completely derailed the Wizards’ offense. Interestingly, it was the Pelicans bench that made the biggest impact as Frank Jackson and Nicolo Melli provided the biggest sparks. Jackson finished with 13 points and had a team-best plus-minus of +30 in 20 minutes and Melli had 10 points and was second in plus-minus at +18.
The third quarter is what turned another potential frustrating and embarrassing loss to a double-digit win.
Honorable mentions: Jrue Holiday, Josh Hart, Derrick Favors’ second half
The Bad: The first half
As good as the second half and third quarter was, the first half was particularly ugly. For the second game in a row, the team had a pretty listless defensive performance. The Wizards, who came into the game averaging barely 100 points per game inside the bubble and continue to be without Bradley Beal and Davis Bertans, scored 56 points in the first two periods and led at the break.
Fortunately, unlike on Thursday, the Pelicans snapped out of their funk. New Orleans could hardly be blamed for not having much fight early on with their postseason hopes effectively ended between Thursday’s loss to the Kings and Friday’s results before their game. But in building habits toward the future, the first half was concerning.
Honorable mentions: JJ Redick’s shooting, Brandon Ingram’s shooting
The Ball: Low scoring, still impactful
Lonzo Ball wasn’t great in the first half, which made Jackson’s performance off the bench stick out even more. Ball shot poorly, going 1-for-7 from the field and 0-for-3 from beyond the arc.
However, Ball stepped up in the second half and still finished with a very Ball-esque stat line of two points, nine rebounds, five assists, three blocks and one steal. His played a role in the second-half surge and looked better in the final two periods.
