The New Orleans Pelicans are in that uncomfortable middle area where the playoffs aren’t a possibility and it’s too late to tank and hope to win the draft lottery. But they’re still obligated to play out the season.
And it looks like the Pels are just going to get extremely weird with it down the stretch. Here’s what happened last night at the end of overtime against the Phoenix Suns.
Leading by three with 6.5 seconds left, New Orleans chose not to foul, allowing Josh Jackson to knock down a game-tying triple. The Pelicans then called a timeout when they had none remaining. The ill-timed Chris Webber tribute resulted in a technical foul. Devin Booker made the free-throw to steal away victory.
Alvin Gentry was quick to take the blame.
”I thought we had one left,” he said. ”We didn’t have one left. That was all on me. I’ll take the hit for that one.”
There are probably worse ways to lose. Ask the Saints. And the stakes here were relatively low. But still, fairly unpleasant and embarrassing way to go down.
