The New Orleans Pelicans surged to come from behind midway through the fourth quarter and defeated the Dallas Mavericks 119-113 to win their fifth straight game. Dallas led 87-79 entering the fourth, but New Orleans outscored them 40-26 in the final frame.
This wasn’t a pretty win for the Pelicans, as the Mavericks were in complete control on both sides of the ball until midway through the fourth quarter. It’s also important to note that Herb Jones suffered an ankle injury early in the third inning, making the first three quarters of the game even worse for the Pelicans. But they found a way to win, and a big reason for that was the production of two bench stars.
After scoring just four points on 1/6 shooting entering the fourth quarter, Jordan Poole caught fire. Poole was just one minute into the final frame and scored 10 points on 3/6 shooting while I also bring some unexpected energy defensively. JP really fired up the home fans with his three-pointer, tying the game with under seven minutes to go, and from that point on, New Orleans was in complete control.
The other guy who had a big game in the fourth quarter was Zion Williamson, as the bench tandem of him and Poole continues to give the Pelicans an elite counterpunch. Williamson matched JP with 10 points of his own and was unstoppable, getting to the rim with ease scoring over elite defenders such as Daniel Gafford and Anthony Davis. He finished the match with 24 points on efficient 10/14 shooting, as he continues to flourish coming off the bench.
Derik Queen also had another impressive night, finishing with 19 points, 11 rebounds and six dimes while leading the team in plus-minus. To see a new great man scoring so efficiently a 7/12 clip against rim-protection threats like Anthony Davis, Daniel Gafford, and Cooper Flagg was extremely impressive. And while Davis finished with 35 points, Queen more than held their own defensively.
The unsung heroes
Trey Murphy III had a poor shooting night, but really proved why he is an All-Star caliber player. Often the best way to tell a good player from a star is to rate a player on his worst shooting night. Murphy III was 4/12 from the field in this game, but ran around like crazy defensively and crashed the boards hard, which was a multiple second chance looks for this team.
Jeremiah Fears also had an off game shooting the ball, and even though he’s not a great defender by any means, the effort he makes defensively makes him an asset on that side of the ball. He had one play where he stripped Davis Jose Alvarado style, leading to a huge hit at the other end.
Speaking of Alvarado, he remains a big shot creator for this team, hitting two threes in the third quarter when it looked like Dallas began to retreat.
Saddiq Bey was big again down the stretch, scoring 7 of his 19 points in the fourth and putting together a huge and one around 8 minutes sign of the fourth quarter.
This five-game win streak is the Pelicans’ first since March 2023 and could be pushed to six straight with a win in part two of this back-to-back in Cleveland.
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