By Eric Jay Santos
On Wednesday night, the New Orleans Pelicans took a 119-116 win over the Dallas Mavericks. Zion Williamson was ruled out of action, as New Orleans has been restricting his minutes since returning from injury. Meanwhile, Dallas had Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving listed on their injury report.
Dejounte Murray and Trey Murphy III were New Orleans’ top performers in the shorthanded matchup. Murray recorded a game-high 30 points and seven assists, while Murphy registered 24 points and ten rebounds.
In the absence of Doncic and Irving, Daniel Gafford scored a career-high 27 points on 12-of-13 shooting for the Mavericks. Jaden Hardy and Spencer Dinwiddie added a combined 41 points.
The final moments of the match brought controversy. With seven seconds left in regulation and the Pelicans holding a 117-116 lead, PJ Washington stole the ball from Jordan Hawkins. A few in-transition passes set up Dinwiddie for a game-winning layup, which was blocked by Murphy. The referees faced criticism for not calling goaltending on Murphy’s block.
During postgame availability, Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd gave his thoughts on the no-call.
“They didn’t see it. That’s the explanation. They didn’t see it…They didn’t do their job tonight…The league wants to get it right, the referees have a tough job, they clearly did not get that one right. It cost us the game…Hopefully the referees can be better in close games…No one saw the goal tend but everybody was there.”
New Orleans now holds a 10-32 season record. They have gone 5-5 in their last ten games.