Loss to Pelicans pushes ‘relaxed’ Kings to brink of elimination in NBA playoff race
Julius Randle turned in a monster performance in the absence of star big man Anthony Davis, posting 34 points and 11 rebounds to lead the New Orleans Pelicans to a 121-118 victory over the Kings on Thursday night at Smoothie King Center.
Buddy Hield scored 27 points but missed seven of his eight 3-point attempts for the Kings (37-38), who are teetering on the brink of mathematical elimination in the Western Conference playoff race. De’Aaron Fox finished with 25 points and 12 assists. Willie Cauley-Stein had 18 points and 12 rebounds.
Christian Wood came off the bench to put up 25 points and nine rebounds in 27 minutes for the Pelicans (32-45).
“We were awful in the first half,” Kings coach Dave Joerger said. “We just didn’t have a lot of energy and the effort wasn’t there defensively.”
The Kings will travel back to Texas to conclude a five-game trip with back-to-back games against the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs on Saturday and Sunday. They will then return to Sacramento to play the Rockets on Tuesday and the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday.
One more loss by Sacramento — or one more win by the Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder — would eliminate the Kings from playoff contention.
New Orleans outscored Sacramento 16-9 to start the game and led 30-26 at the end of the first period. The Pelicans went up 39-31 on a three-point play by Cheick Diallo early in the second quarter and extended their lead to nine on a 3-pointer by Ian Clark with 2:57 remaining. The Kings closed the half with a 15-8 run to get within two on a layup by Fox at the buzzer.
The Kings went up 65-64 on a 3-pointer by Hield early in the third quarter. They later led 88-87 following a 3-pointer by Harrison Barnes, but the Pelicans scored the next six points to carry a 93-88 lead into the final period.
The game remained close throughout the fourth quarter. The score was tied when Ian Clark made a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to put the Pelicans up 117-114 with 2:33 to play. The Kings cut the deficit to one on a couple of occasions, but they couldn’t reclaim the lead. Hield missed a potential game-tying 3-point shot in the final seconds.
The Kings played the second half without starting power forward Nemanja Bjelica, who left the game with a stomach illness. They were also missing rookie center Harry Giles III, who missed his fourth consecutive game with a left thigh contusion. Giles is listed as day-to-day.
The Pelicans were without Davis, who missed his second consecutive game due to lower back spasms. Davis, who is averaging 25.9 points, 12 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game, was a late scratch after being listed as probable earlier in the day.
Davis had 25 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in a 149-129 victory over the Kings on Oct. 19. He had 26 points and 17 rebounds in a 122-117 loss to Sacramento on Dec. 23.
“What can happen is, when you’re a young player and you find out 25 minutes before the game that a team’s best player and an MVP candidate on a perennial basis is not going to play, you relax a little bit,” Joerger said. “I thought we played way too relaxed in the first half.”
This story was originally published March 28, 2019 at 8:26 PM.