As the first half progressed on Wednesday night, it seemed like the New Orleans Pelicans (11-10) would have another big night from Anthony Davis. That wasn’t the case though as the Pelicans star was ejected for the first time in his career with 4:11 left in the first half.
At that point, the Pelicans were only down 46-43 against the Minnesota Timberwolves (13-9). The complexion of the game changed at that point, with the Timberwolves going on a 16-6 run to make it 62-49 at the break.
“When we lost AD, that changed everything.” Coach Alvin Gentry said after the game, “He did exactly what we told him to do, take the ball strong to the basket. We tell our big guys to take the ball to the basket hard and try to create contact. I’ll leave it at that.”
The Pelicans were able to get it down to single digits halfway through the third quarter, but it got out of hand once again with the Timberwolves going on a 16-4 run late to help make it a 17-point lead into the fourth quarter.
The game was officially out of New Orleans’ hands when Andrew Wiggins hit a finger-roll layup with 4:57 remaining in regulation to give Minnesota a 108-90 lead. While the score did fluctuate, it remained double digits and the Timberwolves got out of the Smoothie King Center with a 120-102 victory.
The Pelicans will return to action on Friday when they travel to Utah to take on the Jazz with tipoff set for 8 pm.
-Clint Domingue