A magician performed at halftime of the New Orleans Pelicans’ home game against the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.
If only he could sprinkle some of his halftime magic on the Pelicans.
Not long after the magician left the court, the Pelicans returned from the locker room and did what is becoming the norm this season: they disappeared for a part of the third quarter.
The Blazers went on a 15-2 run in the quarter and ended up handing the Pelicans their ninth loss of the season.
Once again, it was a third quarter lull that did them in.
“We’ve got to finish third quarters,” said Pelicans forward Trey Murphy. “We’ve got to come out and start third quarters very well. We’re not starting third quarters well and teams are continuing to go on runs. It’s the same old song and dance.”
Pelicans’ coach Willie Green talked to his team at halftime about being the aggressors in the third quarter.
“We knew they were going to make some adjustments,” Green said. “We just didn’t do enough in that quarter to make sure we weathered the storm of that first quick run that they had. I had to take a timeout and keep going from there. But it was three quarters of good basketball. We’ve just got to correct the third quarters.”
It's been an issue since the season began. In the opener against the Memphis Grizzlies, the Pelicans got outscored 41-22 in the third quarter.
When asked Wednesday if he has been able to pinpoint anything to lead to the third quarter droughts, Green had this to say.
“Not yet,” Green said. “I think that’s what we are continuously looking at. How can we get off to a better start in the third quarter when teams make an adjustment?”
The Pelicans are averaging 24.5 points this season in the third quarter. That ranks next to last in the league, only ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers. They are also being outscored by an average of 6.8 points per game in the third quarter, which also ranked just ahead of the 76ers for last in the league.
Center Kevon Looney is in his first season with the Pelicans. He spent his first 10 NBA season with the Golden State Warriors, a team that had plenty of success in the third quarter of games during their championship years. So this probably feels like unfamiliar territory to him.
“We just have to play better defensively,” Looney said. “Sometimes we have some letdowns in the third defensively. Based on our history of struggling in the third, we kinda get down on ourselves when teams go on a run. It’s the NBA and teams are going to go on runs.”
The Pelicans host the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. They follow that up against the Golden State Warriors (Sunday), Oklahoma City Thunder (Monday) and the Denver Nuggets (Wednesday).
All four of those teams rank in the top 11 in the league in third quarter scoring. In order for the Pelicans to have a chance against any of those teams, they will have to stop them from going on a scoring binge.
“When stuff starts happening, we’ve just got to be more resilient in adversity,” Looney said. "And keep playing solid basketball.”