Pelicans make things harder on themselves; now they “gotta fight”

The New Orleans Pelicans ended the regular season Sunday by making things harder for themselves in the post-season.

They entered the game at Minnesota in eighth place in the Western Conference with a chance to move up to No. 7, No. 6 or No. 5 along with the possibility of slipping to No. 9.

But the only team in the Western Conference with a chance to gain something tangible Sunday and didn’t was the Pelicans, who fell to the Timberwolves 113-108 that New Orleans coach Willie Green said “was gettable for us.”

It sure was gettable, but the Pelicans let it get away.

They led by as many as 14 points in the first half, wasted an epic performance by Brandon Ingram (42 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists) and watched their opponent start slow-footed on the back end of a back-to-back and start to disintegrate during the first half.

Starting center Rudy Gobert threw a punch at teammate Kyle Anderson in a huddle during a timeout and was sent home. Jaden McDaniels missed most of the game after punching a padded wall in frustration and injuring his hand.

But as dysfunctional as the Wolves were for much of the game, they saved their best basketball for the critical points of the game while the Pelicans melted down when the outcome was being decided.

The Pelicans took their final lead of the game when Trey Murphy III made two free throws for a 102-101 edge with 4:21 remaining. In the final 3:38 they were outscored 12-6, making just one field goal in their final eight attempts and the make came on Herbert Jones Jr.’s uncontested dunk when the Wolves were focused on the 3-point line while holding a five-point lead with 17 seconds left.

CJ McCollum missed two free throws during that stretch, which also included turnovers by Ingram, Jones and McCollum.

One of the Wolves’ baskets came on Anthony Edwards’ tip-in, which came after a missed field-goal attempt so it wasn’t part of the seven second-chance points Minnesota got because New Orleans couldn’t rebound a missed free throw.

“Too many mistakes,” Green said. “When you get to this point in the season, everything counts.”

What counts now if that the Pelicans are headed to an elimination play-in game against No. 10 Oklahoma City on Wednesday night in the Smoothie King Center. They know they can get from here into the playoffs as the No. 8 seed because that’s exactly what they did last season.

They were the No. 9 seed and beat No. 10 San Antonio before going to L.A. and beating the Clippers, who had lost at Minnesota in the 7-8 play-in game.

If the Pelicans lose to a young and frisky Thunder team that they beat three out of four times in the regular season, their season is over. But if they prevail for a fourth time they’ll go on the road to face the loser of Tuesday’s 7-8 game between the Lakers and the Wolves on Friday night.

New Orleans can take encouragement from the fact that this year’s team won six more games in the regular season than last year’s team. And, like last year’s team, it was hot down the stretch, winning nine of 11 before Sunday’s loss.

But other details are less encouraging. OKC (40-42) won six more regular-season games than did the Spurs team the Pelicans drew last year. And with dynamic All-Star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leading the way, they are a dangerous underdog.

Also, a disturbing trend popped up during the Pelicans’ last four games – fast starts, followed by poor stretches.

On Sunday, the Pelicans led 30-18 after one quarter and were outscored 12-4 to start the second quarter. Against the Knicks on Friday they jumped to a 14-7 lead then got outscored 23-13.

Two nights earlier against Memphis they opened a 15-10 lead then got outscored 20-7, and the night before that they jumped to a 14-4 lead against Sacramento before getting outscored 24-8.

Contrasting spurts happen in virtually every NBA game and the Pelicans did win two of those four games.

But it’s no coincidence that those slippages coincided with the gradual implementation of reserve players.

The Pelicans bench was outscored by their opponent’s bench in all four games and by a double-digit margin in all but one game for an average gap of 32-17.

The most-lopsided margin came Sunday when the Minnesota bench outscored New Orleans’ reinforcements of Josh Richardson, Larry Nance Jr. and Naji Marshall 38-8. Green opted not to use rookie guard Dyson Daniels, who had been part of a quartet of reserves Green had used down the stretch.

Nance suffered a leg injury during the game that rendered him unavailable and uncertain for Wednesday. If Nance is unavailable against the Thunder, Green might be forced to give some minutes to either Jaxson Hayes or Willy Hernangomez when he spells Jonas Valanciunas. Both Hayes and Hernangomez have had occasional useful performances this season, but neither has played meaningful minutes in weeks.

With the play-in looming and the Pelicans in a similar position to last April, this might be a good time for Green to channel his impassioned speech prior to the start of the fourth quarter of the second-play-in game last season.

The Pelicans had led the Clippers by 16 in the first half, but were down 10 points entering the final quarter.

Remember?

Green tossed aside his usual calm demeanor for a fiery one and shouted at his players:

“Get your freaking heads up. This is what we live for. This is what we worked hard for, OK? We ain’t giving it up. We are not freaking giving this up. You’re going to freaking fight. You gotta fight.”

Those Pelicans won, 105-101.

We’ll see what these Pelicans have left.