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Andrew LopezESPN
NEW ORLEANS — Sometimes, sleeping in your own bed can be just the boost a team needs.
Playing in just their second home game since Feb. 10, the New Orleans Pelicans took advantage of their home surroundings to come away with a 113-106 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday in a game that saw both teams lose key players.
The Mavericks lost Luka Doncic in the third quarter to a left thigh strain, while Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram didn’t return for the second half after suffering a right ankle sprain.
“It’s that time of the year,” Pelicans guard CJ McCollum said. “It’s a lot of teams battling injuries. Luka goes down tonight. BI goes down. Across the league, a lot of guys are banged up. A lot of teams have to go through times where depth matters. It gives younger guys an opportunity, and some players have to do a little bit more.”
While the Pelicans got some contributions from younger players, they leaned on McCollum, a 10-year veteran, in the fourth quarter.
McCollum scored 16 consecutive points in the final quarter during one stretch for New Orleans, including 13 points in clutch time, to keep the Mavericks from stealing a victory.
New Orleans led by 18 to start the fourth and Dallas cut the lead to as little as three, but McCollum’s play prevented the Mavericks from getting any closer.
“Very tough,” Pelicans forward Trey Murphy III said when asked to describe McCollum’s performance. “He was hitting shots like he’s supposed to. That’s the CJ McCollum I know, and he brought us there in the clutch. I was very happy for him.”
McCollum finished with a game-high 32 points while hitting 6 of 8 shots from 3-point range to ensure New Orleans held on.
“It was good, man. I’m just trying to win,” McCollum said. “I’ve scored a lot of points in my career and hit big shots. I’m just trying to do what I can to help the team win. So it was nice to make some shots and make some plays, but it’s better when it comes in a win.”
McCollum said it was good to be able to sleep in his own bed prior to the game. He took his 1-year-old son for a walk the other day and said getting back into his home routine helped. It showed on the court as well.
The Pelicans had lost six of seven prior to Wednesday’s game and had dropped to three games below .500 for the first time all season.
The win against Dallas put them in a tie for ninth place in the Western Conference standings with the Los Angeles Lakers, but they are also just two games back of the fifth-place Golden State Warriors and 1½ games behind the Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves, who are tied for sixth.
“The only way to go on a winning streak is to win one game at a time,” McCollum said. “So take advantage of each opportunity that’s in front of you and execute the game plan and win each quarter. Trying not to have letdowns in quarters. Every game’s going to be closely contested.
The Pelicans’ next three games are against teams competing for a spot in the play-in tournament. They host Oklahoma City Thunder and Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, and both teams are a game back of New Orleans at 31-35.
On Tuesday, the Lakers come to town. If the Pelicans pick up a win then, it’ll even the season series and deny Los Angeles the head-to-head tiebreaker.
“Everybody’s competing for something,” McCollum added. “First time in a long time where the five to 13 got a shot, like everybody has a chance to make it and has a realistic chance. So just gotta give ourselves a chance to execute down the stretch and live with whatever it is as long as we are playing as hard as we can.”
New Orleans is facing a tough task as injuries pile up. Zion Williamson will be evaluated again in two weeks, and Ingram wasn’t able to finish the game. Ingram was not in a walking boot when leaving the arena Wednesday and did rejoin his teammates on the bench during the fourth quarter.
Pelicans coach Willie Green had no update on Ingram’s status postgame.
“It would be nice to be a whole at some point, but in the meantime we got to figure it out and keep our hopes alive, make sure that we’re doing all we can and I’m doing all we can to make this my 10th year in the playoffs,” McCollum said.
Green praised forward Herb Jones‘ defense against Doncic prior to the Mavs star having to check out. Jones held Doncic to 3-of-11 shooting as the primary defender, according to ESPN tracking.
The way Jones played was also something Green would like to see throughout his team the rest of the way.
“We are challenging each other right now,” Green said. “Herb, we know what he can bring us defensively. Tonight, he went out and showed it and that’s what it is going to take for us.
“I mentioned it earlier but control the controllable. We can follow a game plan, we can execute, we can limit our turnovers, we can rebound and we can play harder than other teams. That has to be our focus coming down the stretch.”
Jones said there was no heightened sense of urgency because the team has been having the same sense of urgency in recent games. Wednesday just had a different outcome.
“It just hasn’t been turning out well for us the couple of games that we played recently,” Jones said. “But, it was huge. We needed it starting out the homestand. Hopefully, we stay consistent and continue to get wins.”