On the New Orleans Pelicans’ last best chance to tie Saturday’s game, they got the ball to Zion Williamson at the left elbow.
Williamson, whose team trailed by two points with less than a minute remaining, felt Houston Rockets wing Dillon Brooks pressing up on him. Williamson dribbled right, but as he pushed forward, his left shoe popped off. Williamson was unable to complete the pass to the cutting Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.
The result: a turnover, the third one New Orleans committed in the final five minutes of Saturday’s game.
“They were the more physical team,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said after his team’s 106-104 loss. “In my opinion, they were more mentally tough down the stretch. Our guys, this is a growth moment for us. We will learn from this. We have to be able to take care of the ball, and we have to make free throws down the stretch.”
At the 30-game mark, the Pelicans have a 17-13 record. They are in seventh place in the Western Conference, meaning that if the postseason started tomorrow, they would have to win one play-in tournament game to qualify for the playoffs.
To finish with a top-six seed, the Pelicans will need to improve their execution late in games. The Pelicans have a 5-7 in games that were within five points in the final five minutes, but their offense has lagged in those situations. They are averaging 91.8 points per 100 possessions in what the NBA defines as “clutch” moments this season (last five minutes; score within five), the third-worst mark in the NBA.
“Turnovers,” Williamson said. “We got to execute, and we can’t have those turnovers. We had three late in the game. It’s going to be hard to win like that.”
Williamson scored a team-high 28 points against the second-ranked Rockets defense. The Pelicans tried to play through him in the final minutes. Williamson had some uncharacteristic miscues.
With 3:14 remaining, he came off a screen and dribbled the ball off his foot. Then with 1:54 left, CJ McCollum was charged with a turnover after blowing by his man off the dribble and mistiming a pass to Williamson, who cut to the basket while McCollum was driving.
Typically, Green prefers to close games with defensive-minded players next to his two stars, Williamson and Brandon Ingram. On Saturday, Green put a more offensively inclined lineup featuring McCollum and Trey Murphy on the floor down the stretch. The Pelicans’ offense still looked clunky.
“The biggest thing is the turnovers,” Green said. “The last three minutes of the game, I believe we had three turnovers. … We watched it today. We looked at our clutch-time execution. We are 30th in taking care of the basketball. It has to be better. Until we learn that, it’s going to be tough to win these games.”
The Pelicans have more turnovers (21) than assists (16) in “clutch” situations this season. Their late-game mistakes are one of the biggest reasons why, despite being four games above .500, it feels as if the Pelicans are still far away from operating at the peak of their powers.
After Saturday’s game, Green called for his team to be more mentally resilient.
“Give Houston credit,” Green said. “Coming into our building on the second night of a back-to-back and beating us on our home floor. They are a tougher team than we are right now.”
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