Golden State Warriors Beat Pelicans After a Roller Coaster, 106-102

The Golden State Warriors captured their 6th win of the season by defeating the New Orleans Pelicans, 106-102. In a dramatic game at the Chase Center, the home team allowed to lose 20 points of advantage, to fall behind 4 in the late part of the fourth, and then to make a superb comeback to take this contest.

But to be honest, their win was also a product of the Pelicans’ bad calls in the finish. We saw several very questionable decisions by either their bench on the players on the court.

The guests from the Big Easy scored just one field goal in the final 2:45. It appears that the pressure was just too high for them, and that was apparent when they shot from the foul line, 15-23.

“We got to do a better job of finding ways to close the game,” said Alvin Gentry, the Pelicans’ head coach. “We got a six-point lead we got to get the ball into the basket, and we gotta find a way to come up with a couple of stops. That’s the difference between winning and losing.”

Meanwhile, the Warriors had D’Angelo Russell, who made two clutch shots in the finish, the first to tie the game at 98-all with a three, and the second, to give his team a 102-100 lead. Following that, Draymond Green hit both of his shots from the line, to provide GSW with a two-possession edge, 104-100.

“I think I am developing a little repertoire for finishing games,” said Russell. “That is just what I want to do, I work on these shots, so when I have the opportunity to execute I’m gonna make them, my confidence is high.”

However, nothing indicated such a thrilling finish. The Warriors started pounding early on, and with 2:56 to go, Kerr’s crew was up 27-8 with no intention of slowing down.

At 4:52 inside the second, and Willi-Cauley Stein’s dunk, the Warriors had a 20-point lead, 44-24, with everything looking just great on the court of Chase Center. However, the Pelicans delivered 12 unanswered points, and came down to 46-42, to silence the crowd inside the new arena. Yet, with a 10-2 run in the closing two minutes, Steve Kerr’s guys went to a safe distance once again, leaving on a break with a 56-42 advantage.

But then in the late part of the third period, the Warriors just stopped again, allowing the guests to score nine straight points, and even to take the lead with 17.3 seconds to go, following Josh Hart’s three-point play. In those moments, the Pelicans guard delivered 7 points in less than sixty seconds. The teams traded buckets in the upcoming few minutes, but the overall impression was that the Pelicans have the momentum.

A few individual efforts from Russell, Green and Damion Lee managed to save the Warriors in this game, but as we said, it was mostly because of Pelicans’ own mistakes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d8D8SupBV8&feature=emb_logo

Russell had 25 points, but again with not such a great shooting percentage, 9 for 21. D-Lo also had 7 assists. Damion Lee scored 20 and 6 boards, while Alec Burks posted 18 off the bench with 8 rebounds and 4 steals,

On the other side, Brandon Ingram and Jrue Holiday delivered 25 each, with the note that holiday had 8 boards and Ingram 6 dimes. JJ Redick and Lonzo Ball scored 14 each.

Pelicans (7-23) are in the middle of their four-game road trip. After beating the Timberwolves in the first match, and losing tonight, they have visits to Portland and Denver before coming back home.

As for the Warriors (6-24), this was the first of four matches at home. The next is against the Timberwolves on Monday, then vs. the Rockets on Christmas and the Suns two days later.