THE RUNDOWN
The New Orleans Pelicans started Toney Douglas, former Nugget Jordan Hamilton, Luke Babbitt, Dante Cunningham and Omer Asik and somehow pulled off a win against the Denver Nuggets. Both teams played on the road last night — Pelicans in San Antonio, Denver in Memphis — but it was the Pels that made the bigger plays down the stretch in a game that was tight all night and win it 101-95.
Denver wasted a brilliant performance from Darrell Arthur, who led the team by tying his career-high of 24 points on 10-15 shooting (4-5 from deep, 0-1 at the free throw line) to go along with nine rebounds, one block and one steal. For those wishing for lottery balls, this was a key game to lose as the Pelicans now move to 28-47 and the Nuggets to 32-45.
WHERE/WHEN
Smoothie King Center… where I once ordered a smoothie ahead of the 2014 All-Star Game
March 31, 2016 / Game Number 77
STAR OF THE GAME FOR NUGGETS
This goes to Darrell Arthur for the aforementioned career-high tying 24 points. He set his career-high while with the Memphis Grizzlies back on Feb. 13, 2011 in a win over the… Denver Nuggets.
PLAY OF THE GAME
This was a nice pass from Nikola Jokic to Emmanuel Mudiay and an incredible finish from Kid Congo guiding the ball to the hole.
Nikola Jokic with the pretty pass and better finish by Emmanuel Mudiay. #Nuggets pic.twitter.com/nqUdNrbTlB
— Nate Timmons (@NateTimmonsBSN) April 1, 2016
TURNING POINT OF THE GAME
It was a close game all the way though, but the Pelicans outscored the Nuggets 24-17 in the fourth quarter, including 9-6 in the final three minutes of the contest.
BY THE NUMBERS
With 1:15 left and the Pelicans up 96-91 and the Nuggets inbounding the ball, New Orleans had a 97.7 percent chance of winning the game and they got it done.
From NBA.com
QUOTE OF THE GAME
“I thought in the first half we didn’t defend, at all… neither did they.” said Michael Malone post game on Altitude TV.
With the Pelicans looking to gain as many lotto balls as possible heading into the 2015 NBA Lottery, no surprise their mash unit roster wasn’t defending too well… but they scored the ball all night.
LASTING IMPACT
The Nuggets are now officially eliminated from the NBA playoffs.
Odd stat from tonight, Gary Harris played over 37 minutes and scored 16 points, but was a team-high -21 on the night. Harris always draws the toughest assignment on the defensive end, but tonight his numbers were pretty crazy.
Nikola Jokic played just 23 minutes tonight going 4-7 from the field for 9 points, but was a -8 and didn’t appear in the fourth quarter. Jokic needs to be playing late in games, every night the Nuggets lace ’em up.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the 14 points from former Nuggets guard Jordan Hamilton tonight. He’s on a 10-day contract with the Pelicans and has been battling to find a home in the NBA after being out of the league for a large portion of this season. Hamilton was one of my go-to guys to talk to when he was in Denver. Great to see him getting a shot in the league at just 25 year-old still.
I also did a podcast with Jordan Hamilton back in July of 2013 that you can find right here.
Easy alley-oop finish for @J_Goin_HAM here to give #Pelicans 77-72 lead over #Nuggets. pic.twitter.com/jOz2R2hbEr
— Nate Timmons (@NateTimmonsBSN) April 1, 2016
WHAT’S NEXT
The Nuggets return to the Mile High City on Saturday April 2nd for their final matchup against the Sacramento Kings and perhaps George Karl‘s last game coaching the Kings in Denver, tipoff is at 7:00 p.m. MT.
