There are slow starts and then there’s what happened on Friday night in Philadelphia.
Straight out of the gate, the New Orleans Pelicans (28-26) were outclassed by the Philadelphia 76ers (27-25), eventually falling 100-82.
Philadelphia came out of the gates strong with a 23-4 in the opening six minutes that truly set the tone for the rest of the ballgame. The Pelicans couldn’t get out of their own way and wound up down by 18 after one quarter of play.
New Orleans started to fight back early in the second quarter, getting the lead down to nine points with 4:45 left until halftime. However, Josh Redick got the 76ers back firmly in front with a three-pointer to make it 56-41 at the break.
The 76ers dominated in the second half and truly began to pull away as the third quarter ended thanks to a dunk from Joel Embiid and a driving layup by TJ McConnell made it a 32-point ballgame. Justin Anderson put the final nail in the coffin with 4:14 left in the ballgame with a driving bank shot to make it 94-69.
The Pelicans will head up to Brooklyn tomorrow to take on the Nets (19-37) with tipoff set for 5 pm.
-Clint Domingue