Pelicans step into rare territory with high-scoring loss

In the final moments of the Pelicans’ 147-140 loss to the Golden State Warriors Wednesday night, much was being made of the NBA record for combined three-pointers. The two teams combined to make 43 triples.

That record, though, was all of 11 days old. The Warriors and Sacramento Kings combined for 41 threes on Jan. 5.

Consider this question: When was the last time a team scored 140 points in regulation and lost? The Warriors were also on the winning end of that one … except it was the Chris Mullin/Tim Hardaway version.

On Jan. 18, 1992, Golden State went into Reunion Arena in Dallas and defeated the Mavericks 143-141. If you’re counting, that’s almost 27 years to the day since the last time both teams scored 140 points in a non-overtime game.

Unlike Wednesday’s game, which featured the flurry of three-pointers, that 1992 game had only 11 triples, 10 by the Mavs. The Warriors went … get this … 1-for-3 from beyond the arc. The teams combined to shoot 105 free throws.

From 1981-91, there were 16 games in which the losing team scored at least 140 and the game did not go to overtime. The mostly common thread – one of the teams was likely the Denver Nuggets.

Eight times from 1981 through 1990, Doug Moe-coached Denver teams got into one of those fast-paced, high-scoring games. Then Paul Westhead replaced Moe at the start of the 1990-91 season and took things to another level.

Westhead’s first game as Nuggets coach was a 162-158 loss to the Warriors. In the first 17 games of the season – all in a 34-day span – the Nuggets had five games where both teams topped the 140-point mark. Perhaps not coincidentally, Denver lost all five games in the midst of a 3-14 start.

Denver added a sixth such game that season in February, but it won 150-145 over the Warriors.

Prior to 1980, the database website Basketball Reference only list five other such games, the first of which was Wilt Chamberlain’s record 100-point scoring night on March 2, 1962 in a 169-147 win for the Philadelphia Warriors over the New York Knicks in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

You can view the full list of non-overtime games in which teams lost scoring 140 points here.