Four minutes into the third quarter Wednesday night, Orlando Magic guard Gary Harris slipped on the Smoothie King Center court and crashed into the knees of Zion Williamson.
Pelicans’ fans held their collective breaths on the play that looked worse than it turned out to actually be.
Turns out, Williamson’s knee was just fine.
The Pelicans aren’t though.
The Pels are slipping and falling on their homecourt too, losing for the fourth time in five games inside the Smoothie King Center and continuing their free fall during this crucial 6-game homestand.
This 117-108 loss to the Magic dropped the Pels to 45-31 and to seventh place in the Western Conference standings.
Just 10 days ago, the Pelicans were in fourth place with hopes of hosting Game 1 of a first round playoff series for the first time since 2008. Heck, just seven days ago, Pelicans’ forward Larry Nance Jr. sat in the locker room after a win over the Milwaukee Bucks discussing the goal of a 50-win season, a feat that has happened just once in franchise history.
It’s still in reach, but would take a 5-1 finish which seems highly unlikely the way the Pels are reeling right now.
Little did anyone know at the time that the victory over Milwaukee would be the only win of the homestand thus far. There is a chance to get one more Friday night when rookie sensation Victory Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs come to town.
The Pelicans desperately need to beat the Spurs and get back on track after losses to the Thunder, Celtics, Suns and Magic during this pivotal stretch.
After Friday’s game against the Spurs, the Pelicans take a 4-game road trip to the west coast to play Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento and Golden State. After that, they conclude the regular season with a home finale against the Los Angeles Lakers, who are all of a sudden just 1 1/2 games behind the Pels.
If Zion and Company can’t stop the bleeding, they’ll end up taking the rugged play-in tournament route for a third straight season.
If that’s the case, it’ll be mostly due to a failure to take care of business at home during this 6-game home stand.
“It’s frustrating,” said Pelicans’ coach Willie Green. “But this is a part of it. It’s not going to be easy to go where we want to go. This is a part of the NBA journey. We put ourselves in an unbelievably good position. But we have to run through the tape.”
Instead of running through the tape, the Pelicans are just stumbling towards the finish line. They trailed by as many as 20 points Wednesday, making it the third straight loss the Pelicans fell in a 20-point hole they couldn’t climb out of. A Smoothie King Center crowd that has been ready to erupt hasn’t been able to.
This latest loss was so frustrating that three of the most mild-mannered players on the team (Herb Jones, Trey Murphy and Dyson Daniels) all got ejected with just 7 ticks left. The Pelicans are just 21-17 in their own building, while going 24-14 on the road.
“We have to have a higher level of focus,” Williamson said. “We just do. We’ve spoken on it a lot throughout the year. But at a certain point, you can’t keep speaking on it. You’ve got to make it happen.”
It would help, of course, if Brandon Ingram was playing. The Pelicans are struggling without him. He’s missed the last seven games with a left knee bone contusion. They are also missing the energy that Jose Alvarado (hip injury) brings off the bench.
“I always tell myself on the court and off the court, ‘don’t panic,’” Williamson said. “When people panic, it causes other people to want to panic. There is no need for us to panic.”
CJ McCollum, who poured in a game-high 36 points Wednesday, agrees.
“We’ve got 45 wins with six games left,” McCollum said.” It’s not the end of the world… We will be fine.”
Will they?
They have just six more games to prove it.