New Orleans held a slight upper hand on the NBA’s best team for a half Tuesday and made a late fourth-quarter push after falling behind, but Milwaukee ultimately did what it’s done in the vast majority of its games this season, pulling away for another victory. The Bucks trailed 61-58 at halftime, but rapidly turned that into a 19-point lead in the third quarter, draining threes and running past the Pelicans to the tune of a 25-10 edge in fast-break points through 36 minutes.
“They came out and pushed it down our throat,” New Orleans guard Lonzo Ball said of Milwaukee’s third-period surge, featuring numerous open-floor scores. “The game plan was to get back (on defense), but we didn’t do that as well in the third quarter. It opened up layups for them, corner threes for them. That kind of got the game out of hand for them for a little bit.”
IT WAS OVER WHEN…
Wesley Matthews sank a momentum-turning corner three, then Eric Bledsoe drove in for a fast-break layup, giving Milwaukee a 114-100 lead with 4:47 remaining. New Orleans cut a dozen points off what had been a 19-point deficit, but Milwaukee responded with a 7-0 run during the middle portion of the final quarter to regain control.
PELICANS PLAYER OF THE GAME
For virtually everyone else in a while uniform, Tuesday was a rough shooting night, making Brandon Ingram’s performance particularly instrumental in keeping the Pelicans from losing complete contact on the scoreboard. The forward finished 12/19 from the floor – the rest of the squad was a combined 26/79 – leading the Pelicans with 32 points. He also grabbed seven rebounds in his 36 minutes.
BY THE NUMBERS
38-21: New Orleans bench scoring advantage, while facing one of the NBA’s deepest teams. The reserves held their own, led by JJ Redick (13 points) and Josh Hart (8 points, 7 rebounds). The subs were all in the positives in plus-minus, but the opposite was true for Pelicans starters.
18: Pelicans turnovers, leading to 20 Bucks points. It was an area of emphasis to cut their mistakes after committing 26 on Sunday at Houston, but the Pelicans couldn’t make enough strides in the area. The starters had 17 of those turnovers.
53-49: Milwaukee rebounding edge, a respectable margin for New Orleans. Reigning league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo grabbed 17 boards, to go with 34 points.
#PLUSMINUSGOINGUPONATUESDAY
For all 12 Tuesday games throughout New Orleans’ regular season, we’ll be selecting a Pelicans player we think will have the best plus-minus on the stat sheet that night. Daniel Sallerson selected Zion Williamson, while Jim Eichenhofer picked Derrick Favors. In a fan poll among four other candidates, Brandon Ingram was chosen. The winner of the sixth plus-minus contest was Sallerson with Williamson finishing at minus-11, making the season standings Daniel 3, Fans 2, Jim 1.
