After looking like they were getting back into the swing of things against the Charlotte Hornets, the New Orleans Pelicans (39-29) were brought back down to Earth on Thursday night, coming up short 98-93 to the San Antonio Spurs (39-30) in a surprisingly low-scoring ballgame.
The Pelicans started out with a 6-2 lead early on, but that evaporated and the Spurs were able to make it 20-10 with 5:38 left in the first quarter. Despite a first quarter rally by New Orleans, it wasn’t enough as San Antonio got out to an 11-point lead after one quarter of play after a Tony Parker three-ball at the buzzer.
The Spurs continued to take control of the ballgame, getting up by as much as 15 points. However, the Pelicans went on a 10-0 run in the final 2:55 of the first to make it a two-point ballgame at the break.
It seemed like the Pelicans were going to take the momentum they had heading into the locker room and take a significant lead early on in the third quarter. However, the Spurs were able to keep them at bay throughout with the Pelicans only putting up 15 points and went into the fourt quarter up by five points.
New Orleans came extremely close to tying it up in the final 10 seconds of regulation after Patty Mills made one of two free throws. However, Nikola Mirotic rushed a bank shot with 5.9 seconds left and that was all she wrote for the Pelicans.
The Pelicans will return to action on Saturday when they take on the Houston Rockets (54-14) with tipoff set for 6 pm.
-Clint Domingue