Pelicans vs. Grizzlies Reactions: The good, the bad and the Lonzo Ball
The Pelicans’ playoff hopes took possibly their final blow on Monday as the Grizzlies upended a comeback attempt by New Orleans for a 115-110 win.
The night was a tale of two halves for the Pelicans and, particularly, a tale of a huge third quarter. After heading into the locker room down double-digits after not leading once in the first half, New Orleans surged out of the locker room to eventually take an 80-74 lead with a 21-3 run.
From there, the two sides played back-and-forth basketball for the remainder of the game. New Orleans spent the rest of the third quarter and the early stages of the fourth quarter either tied or leading. But once the Grizzlies took back the lead on a Jonas Valanciunas hook shot with 9:28 left, Memphis never looked back.
Big baskets from Lonzo Ball, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jaxson Hayes in the final minutes came the game close but the Pelicans lacked the offensive firepower and ability to get stops down the stretch to pull off back-to-back wins in consecutive nights.
Alexander-Walker led the Pelicans with 18 points as one of seven players in double figures. Willy Hernangomez had 15 and James Johnson and Hayes each had 13.
The Good: Learning moments
Barring something incredible in the final week of the regular season - more on that later - the Pelicans season is going to end like many before it have: without playoff basketball. That fate looked sealed many different times, whether it was the loss to the Spurs on April 24 - a result that proved to be remarkably important - or a loss to the Warriors on May 3 or losing Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson on the same night one day later. Searching for positives in the final games means focusing on the play of Alexander-Walker, Hayes, Naji Marshall and Kira Lewis, young players that figure to be a part of the core for New Orleans moving forward. All looked great at times on Monday in their expanded roles.
The Bad: Playoff hopes
This wasn't the official death blow for the Pelicans playoff hopes, but it was the punch that knocked them to the mat and could be the knockout. As New Orleans fell in Memphis, San Antonio was wrapping up an impressive and unexpected blowout win over Milwaukee. Those two results mean the only path for the Pelicans to make the play-in game is for New Orleans to win each of their final three games against Dallas, Golden State and the Lakers while San Antonio loses all four of its remaining games against Brooklyn, New York and Phoenix twice to close the season. The latter isn't improbable. In fact, it's probably the likely outcome. But New Orleans finishing off the season with three straight wins feels as unlikely as anything that's happened this season.
Lonzo Ball: Quiet, but impactful
After back-to-back games where he struggled mightily with his shot, Lonzo Ball took a backseat offensively on Monday. It led to a smaller volume but higher efficiency as he shot 5-of-7 from the field and 2-of-2 from the 3-point line for 12 points in 34 minutes. As always, he was impactful in other ways as well, grabbing eight rebounds and handing out three assists with a steal and two blocks as well.
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