The Portland Trail Blazers and New Orleans Pelicans are becoming quite familiar with each other in the first two weeks of the season.
After splitting two games in Portland during the season’s opening weekend, the Trail Blazers and Pelicans will face off for a third time on Monday night in New Orleans. Both teams have had a tough start to the season.
The Blazers are looking to bounce back after a tough pair of losses. They lost 137-114 to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday and then fell 103-97 to the Phoenix Suns on Sunday.
The short-handed Pelicans are also playing back-to-back games after losing 126-111 to the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday night.
Zion Williamson, the Pelicans’ second-leading scorer, missed the game against the Hawks due to a hamstring injury, joining four other important players on the bench. Leading scorer Brandon Ingram stepped up with 32 points, hitting 12 of 19 shots.
Coach Willie Green has urged Ingram to take more three-point shots, and he was 4 of 8 from long range on Sunday.
“I love that he’s staying with it,” Green said. “It’s going to make his life easy. When he can knock down threes, it’s going to open up the paint, and it opens up his ability to get to the free-throw line. He’s still going to take his mid-range shots. It’s something he does at an efficient level.”
New Orleans had a one-point lead at halftime but was outscored 68-52 in the second half. Jordan Hawkins, who scored 19 points, pointed to the Pelicans’ 18 turnovers — six of which happened in the fourth quarter — as a major reason for their struggles in the second half.
“The turnovers we had just ran out that lead, and they made a big run at the end of the third quarter,” Hawkins said.
Portland was outscored in the third quarter of both of its last two games. The Blazers were tied with the Thunder at halftime but were outscored 38-17 in the third quarter. They led the Suns by four at halftime before falling behind by 22 entering the fourth quarter, although they rallied to come within two points in the final two minutes.
“I just thought we laid it on the line and did what we needed to do,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said about the comeback. “Another tough third quarter for us, but man, we came out and really got ourselves back in the game.”
Billups felt positive that the Blazers fought back against the Suns after not doing so against the Thunder.
“We never caved in,” he said. “I’m proud of our guys for just hanging in. We were on the second half of a tough back-to-back … We got hit with a big blow in that third quarter and just kind of stuck together. This is what you want. You want the guys to stick together and just chip away.”
The Pelicans won their first game against the Blazers 105-103 on October 25, but the Blazers came back with a 125-103 victory two nights later.
After Monday night, the teams won’t play each other again until January 8 in New Orleans.
