The New Orleans Pelicans couldn’t overcome a poor start in their last game.
The Cleveland Cavaliers wasted an excellent start in their last game.
The Pelicans will visit the Cavaliers on Monday night.
Cleveland scored the first 15 points of the game but eventually lost to the Pistons 115-105 on Sunday in Detroit.
“We thought tonight was going to be a cakewalk,” said Darius Garland, who led Cleveland with 24 points. “Come into Detroit and get a win. It’s never like that in the league.”
The Cavaliers’ early lead shrank to six points at halftime, they fell behind for the first time in the fourth quarter and saw their three-game winning streak end, losing for just the second time in 10 games.
“This is not who we are as a basketball team and we want to show the world who we are,” said Jarrett Allen, who scored 15 points for Cleveland.
Detroit took command with a 20-2 run in the fourth quarter. The Cavaliers scored just seven points in the final nine minutes.
“I hope everybody woke up,” Garland said. “I hope it lit something under their butt. I know there are more games, but that was unacceptable.”
New Orleans’ scoring problems came at the outset of a 107-97 home loss to the Celtics on Saturday. The Pelicans scored 15 points in the first quarter and added 19 in the second quarter to finish the first half with their lowest total in any half this season.
“We definitely dug too much of a hole,” said Garrett Temple, who started in place of injured leading scorer Brandon Ingram.
The Pelicans surpassed their halftime total with 36 points in the third quarter, but couldn’t catch Boston despite scoring 27 in the fourth.
“We just decided that we were going to fight,” coach Willie Green said of the improvement after halftime. “We had a talk at halftime.”
The Pelicans have lost their last three games and shot poorly against the Celtics and in a home loss to the Nuggets the night before. In those two games, they shot 20 percent (13 of 66) on 3-pointers.
“I know we’re missing some shots,” Green said. “We have to continue shooting the ball with confidence. That’s the deal for us. We’re getting quality looks, open looks. We have to make them.”
New Orleans’ offense would receive a boost if Ingram could return from an ankle injury that has sidelined him for the last four games. He is questionable for Monday as are Jonas Valanciunas, who has missed the last three games because of a non-COVID illness, and Josh Hart, who played through a left knee contusion the last two games.
The Pelicans are 2-11 in games this season in which Ingram has not played. One of those wins was a 108-104 triumph against the Cavaliers on Dec. 28.
Ingram was sidelined by a sore Achilles, and Hart was sidelined by an ankle injury. Rookie Herbert Jones scored a season-high 26 points, and Temple made a season-best five 3-pointers in six attempts.
–Field Level Media
