The New Orleans Pelicans will do something Wednesday night that no other NBA team has done this season — face the Cavaliers after Cleveland lost a game.
The Cavaliers, who won a franchise-record 15 games to start the season before losing to the host Boston Celtics 120-117 on Tuesday night, will host the reeling Pelicans, who were embarrassed in Dallas by the Mavericks 132-91 the same night.
The Cavaliers, just the fourth team in NBA history to begin a season with 15 consecutive wins, trailed the defending NBA champion Celtics by as many as 21 points before getting within two points in the third quarter. Ultimately, Cleveland came up short for the first time in the campaign.
“We’re going to continue to fight,” said guard Donovan Mitchell, who led the Cavaliers with 35 points against Boston. “This was a great test for us, and unfortunately we didn’t get the win. It was fun. When you’re playing good basketball and winning games, you enjoy these moments. It’s great to be a part of history.
“We wish we could have kept it going, but there are no championships won in November. (Our next) goal is to not lose two in a row.”
Evan Mobley posted 22 points, 11 rebounds and six assists for Cleveland, but second-leading scorer Darius Garland had just eight points after shooting 3-for-21 from the floor and missing all six of his 3-point attempts.
The Celtics took control by outscoring the Cavaliers 39-28 in the second quarter to take a 65-48 halftime lead. They turned back Cleveland’s comeback attempt and never relinquished the lead.
“That big second quarter was too much to overcome,” Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson said.
The Pelicans’ first quarter Tuesday also was too much to overcome. New Orleans fell behind 44-29 after one period and never led during its eighth loss in nine games. The Pelicans allowed the Mavericks to score at least 34 points in three different quarters.
“We came out lackluster,” New Orleans coach Willie Green said. “We’ve got to get off to a better start.”
Trey Murphy III put up a season-high 19 points and Brandon Ingram added 17 for the Pelicans, who shot 39.7 percent from the floor and committed 21 turnovers.
“We just got beat,” Green said. “There’s no way around it. Our guys played hard, but they just got beat. They beat us. They beat us across the board. No excuses on our part. We’ll grow from this and learn from this.”
The game Wednesday will complete the season series two weeks after the Cavaliers reached 9-0 for the first time in franchise history with a 131-122 victory in New Orleans.
Mitchell poured in 29 points, Jarrett Allen added 16 points and 14 rebounds, and four other Cavaliers logged double-figure scoring totals in a balanced scoring effort for Cleveland.
For the Pelicans, Zion Williamson finished with 29 points and Jose Alvarado added 27, but both of them have since been injured, joining Dejounte Murray, CJ McCollum, Herbert Jones and Jordan Hawkins on the sideline.
–Field Level Media