{"id":666186,"date":"2026-03-19T06:04:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T06:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/666186\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T06:04:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T06:04:25","slug":"clippers-cant-hang-on-to-18-point-lead-lose-to-pelicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/666186\/","title":{"rendered":"Clippers can’t hang on to 18-point lead, lose to Pelicans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEW ORLEANS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Saddiq Bey scored 25 points, Trey Murphy added 23 and the New Orleans Pelicans overcame an early 18-point hole to beat the Clippers 124-109 on Wednesday<\/a> night.<\/p>\n

Dejounte Murray had 17 points and 11 assists, while Zion Williamson and rookie Derrick Queen each scored 14 for the Pelicans, who received a standing ovation as the final seconds wound down on their sixth straight victory at home and ninth win in their last 13 games overall<\/p>\n

Kawhi Leonard scored 25 points and John Collins added 18 for the Clippers<\/a>, who dropped a game below .500 (34-35), but maintained a tenuous hold on the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference standings<\/a>, a half-game ahead of Portland.<\/p>\n

Bey hit five of 10 three-point shots to help New Orleans go 16 of 37 (43.2%) from deep. The Pelicans also made 20 of 21 free throws, with Queen making all nine of his.<\/p>\n

Pelicans rookie guard Jeremiah Fears chipped in 11 points off the bench.<\/p>\n

Murphy made his 200th three of the season late in the third quarter to give New Orleans an 89-81 lead. His fourth make from deep made it 94-81 in the final minute of the period, which ended with New Orleans leading 96-85.<\/p>\n

Murphy\u2019s double-clutch dunk over Brook Lopez to close out a fast break spawned by Herb Jones\u2019 steal gave New Orleans a 117-101 lead with 4:43 left, and the Pelicans led by as many as 20 in the final minutes.<\/p>\n

New Orleans committed eight turnovers in the first nine minutes, and the Clippers converted those into nine points while building a 33-18 lead.<\/p>\n

Leonard scored 12 of his points during that stint and the Clippers led by as many as 18 during the opening quarter before the Pelicans trimmed it to 40-26 on Murphy\u2019s free throws.<\/p>\n

New Orleans came all the way back to tie it at 58 on Murphy\u2019s three late in the second quarter.<\/p>\n

Leonard and Murphy traded baskets in the final 10 seconds before halftime, with Murphy tying it at 60 on a high, driving floater in traffic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW ORLEANS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Saddiq Bey scored 25 points, Trey Murphy added 23 and the New Orleans Pelicans overcame an early…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":666187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,193821,7197,161639,272964,33255,3524,316,2961,5615,88992,224,5337,3137,471,449,23077,198198,62696],"class_list":["post-666186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-clipper","tag-clippers","tag-final-minute","tag-final-second","tag-free-throw","tag-herb-jones","tag-home","tag-la","tag-lead","tag-leonard","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-no","tag-point","tag-portland","tag-saddiq-bey","tag-trey-murphy"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}