New Orleans — The Pelicans lost their 4th-straight Sunday night, and with the Western Conference playoff race as tight as ever, they know this is no time to have a sloppy game.
“I think it starts with the turnovers,” said Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry. “I think it’s hard to beat any team with, it says 21 turnovers, but we had it down as 24 the way we keep turnovers. I think if you have that many turnovers against a quality team then obviously you’re going to struggle to beat the team.”
“We had 20-plus [turnovers],” said Pelicans forward Anthony Davis, who finished with 25 points, 11 rebounds in the loss. “Any time you have 20 turnovers, it’s tough to win a game. It was careless. A lot of them were unforced. We can’t afford to have turnovers. I think we’re trying to make the right plays but I don’t think we’re thinking the game all the way through. That’s for everybody– including myself. We’ve got to make sure we go out there and just play. I don’t want to say we’re playing tight but we are doing stuff that we normally don’t do. We’ve just got to get back to how we’re playing.”
“For the last 2 months I think it’s been like this,” said Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday, who finished with 12 points, 6 rebounds in the loss. “It’s been close. Even from when Utah got their 10 or 11 game win-streak and they started-off terribly. Again, I think we’ve got to get back into a groove– especially toward the beginning of the game and toward the end of the game. I think we can figure it out. We’ve got 5 games left.”
The Pelicans (43-34) return to action Wednesday night when they host the Memphis Grizzlies, who may be the second worst team in the league, but they’ve also beaten the Pelicans twice this season.”