MINNEAPOLIS – For the second consecutive Wednesday, New Orleans faced a team that was playing without its best player. Unlike last week’s 15-point defeat in Milwaukee (sans league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo), the Pelicans were too much for Karl Anthony Towns-less Minnesota. Riding a big offensive night by Brandon Ingram, New Orleans put a halt to its 13-game losing streak in relatively comfortable fashion, building a double-digit halftime lead and playing one of its best defensive games of 2019-20. The Timberwolves struggled to consistently score while playing without Towns, who averages 26.5 points.
Jrue Holiday drained three key three-pointers in the second half to extend New Orleans’ lead, with the first of those makes giving him the franchise’s all-time record for made threes. Holiday has a total of 556 in a Pelicans uniform, surpassing previous leader Peja Stojakovic (553 with New Orleans).
“We just needed a win,” fifth-year head coach Alvin Gentry said of ending the streak. “We needed something we could say was positive from start to finish. It’s been extremely hard. We’ve had some extremely close calls, where a play here or a play there, could’ve given us a win and we weren’t able to do it.”
IT WAS OVER WHEN…
Holiday sank a left-wing three-pointer, giving New Orleans a 100-82 lead with roughly five minutes remaining. Minnesota kept trying to claw back and make it interesting, but couldn’t make enough shots to force any final-minute drama, despite a few Pelicans turnovers.
PELICANS PLAYER OF THE GAME
Ingram powered the visitors into the lead in the first half, riding red-hot shooting to 25 points prior to intermission. The forward appeared potentially on his way to surpassing his career high of 40, but he slowed down in the second half, finishing with 34 points on 12/22 shooting from the field. Ingram was a perfect 7/7 at the foul line.
“I think we had a sense of urgency for what we had to get done, to set the tone on the first game of this road trip,” Ingram said of the win. “Everything did a really good job of helping the team on the offensive and defensive end.”
BY THE NUMBERS
37: New Orleans bench points, led by Josh Hart’s 11 and 10 from Lonzo Ball. “It was awesome,” Holiday said of the reserves. “I feel like it was what we saw at the beginning of the season, with Nickeil (Alexander-Walker) coming off the bench playing well. E’Twaun (Moore) doing his thing, as a vet. Zo (Ball) pushing the pace and being able to get (defensive) stops and get to the basket.”
41: Minnesota bench points, but there was a key distinction between the two second units, because the Pelicans’ subs shot 50 percent at 15/30, but the Wolves were much less efficient, going 16/42. Robert Covington tallied 15 points but needed 17 shots to do so.
55-43: New Orleans rebounding advantage, one of the Pelicans’ best outings in that category. It helped that Minnesota missed nearly 60 shots from the floor (36 of 95).
#WESTERNCONFERENCEWEDNESDAY
New Orleans began a four-game road trip Wednesday that features all Western Conference hosts, making it an ideal time to ask: Which is the most important game for the Pelicans on this excursion that stops in three different time zones? By a slim margin, Wednesday’s game was the winner, garnering 42 percent of votes, edging the 41 percent that went to Friday’s matchup against struggling Golden State. The Christmas meeting with Denver collected 16 percent, while Monday’s visit to Portland mustered only 1 percent.
