Pelicans’ wild clinching win was a microcosm of their wild season

NEW ORLEANS – In the New Orleans Pelicans’ 80th game of the season, they finally assured themselves of at least an 83rd game.

The 138-131 overtime victory against the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night in the Smoothie King Center guaranteed the Pelicans (41-39) at least a non-losing regular-season record, at least a spot in the play-in tournament and at least one more home game in the post-season as no worse than the No. 9 seed in the Western Conference.

New Orleans managed to squeeze a microcosm of the entire season to date into nearly three hours – a fast start, a lot of bad stuff in the middle, and an encouraging surge, followed by more anxiety before a satisfying finish.

The Pelicans trailed by 19 points just before halftime against a team that was missing seven players, including superstar Ja Morant and two more double-figure scorers.

They made seven 3-pointers in a span of 215 seconds early in the fourth quarter to surge in front, then fell behind and regained the lead seemingly with a safe cushion.

But somehow they managed to lose a six-point lead in the final 4.7 seconds and find themselves in overtime. That comeback probably sounds kind of unlikely.

It is.

Prior to Wednesday, teams faced with a deficit of six or more points in the final five seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime had failed to catch up all 17,930 times they were faced with that challenge during the last 20 seasons.

Entering overtime the game hinged primarily on the Pelicans’ state of mind. Were they crestfallen and incapable of recovering or were they angry and more determined than ever?

They looked like the latter.

They got a stop on the first possession of overtime, which was huge. Then Trey Murphy III made a 3-pointer, Brandon Ingram made a steal and Murphy made another 3-pointer – his seventh of the game.

Larry Nance Jr. got free for a layup, Herbert Jones Jr. broke away for a dunk and Nance added a dunk while the Grizzlies went scoreless for the first three minutes of the extra period.

Memphis finally scored and even got within seven with 1:19 left, which ordinarily wouldn’t seem like a big deal but in light of what happened in the final seconds of regulation, was enough to make the home crowd squirm momentarily.

But the Pelicans quickly regained control and clinched a post-season berth for the second time head coach Willie Green’s two seasons.

The Pelicans’ comeback from a 19-point deficit to win made them the last team in the NBA this season to win a game after trailing by at least 15 points.

A series of possibilities remain in play, including avoiding the play-in all together. The particulars will be sorted out during the final four days of the regular season.

Who knows what this team has in store the rest of the way?

On Wednesday its top defender (Jones) led the offense with a career-high 35 points, its point guard (CJ McCollum) led the rebounding effort with 10 and its leading scorer (Ingram) finished fourth on the team in points (24) but first in assists (a career-high-tying 13).

Jones, McCollum and Murphy became the first trio of players to score 30 or more points in the same game in franchise history. On top of that each of them made at least five 3-pointers.

The only other time that an NBA team had three players score 30 or more points and make five or more 3-pointers in the same game was earlier Wednesday. The team that did it first was the New York Knicks – New Orleans’ opponent in the home finale Friday night.

The Pelicans, who made just 7 of 20 3-pointers while their opponent made 17 in a loss 24 hours earlier against Sacramento, on Wednesday made 21 (tying a franchise record) of 39, including nine straight down the stretch.

This is a team that was briefly the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference in December and endured a 10-game losing streak and found itself outside the top 10 in the West last month.

Wednesday night was the wildest game in what has been a very wild season.

And the head-spinning outcome guaranteed that this wild ride will continue for at least one more game than was scheduled.

Good luck guessing at what lies beyond that.

But enjoy the ride.