by Charlie O. Mallonee

The New Orleans Pelicans defeated the Sacramento Kings 101 to 95 on Friday night in Sacramento. The game had playoff implications for the Pelicans who came into the contest just one and a half games behind Oklahoma City for the eighth and final playoff berth in the Western Conference. The Pelicans knew early in the game that Oklahoma City had lost to Memphis. The win cut the Thunder’s lead to just one-half game in the race for the playoffs.

The loss negated another incredible triple-double performance by the Kings DeMarcus Cousins. Cousins finished with 24 points, 20 rebounds and 13 assists. Cousins had a triple-double on Tuesday night in Houston.

The Pelicans led the Kings 56-42 at halftime and had led Sacramento by 14 points several times in the half. New Orleans increased their lead to 18 points with 6:21 to go in the third quarter. Just when it looked like all was lost, the Kings came back to life.

Sacramento went on a 16-0 run and cut the New Orleans lead to just two points with 1:27 remaining in the quarter. The Kings were led by DeMarcus Cousins’ eight points, seven rebounds and four assists. Ray McCallum scored 10 points connecting on four of seven shots from the floor including two 3-pointers. Sacramento trailed New Orleans by just three points, 74-71 after three quarters.

In the final period, the Pelicans twice opened up a 10 point lead. The Kings continued to chip away at that lead and closed it to a two point game on a Omri Casspi slam dunk off a feed from Cousins with 4:17 to go in the game.

New Orleans went up by seven points but the Kings cut the lead to three (96-93) off a Derek Williams dunk with an assist from Cousins with 1:27 remaining. The Pelicans outscored the Kings 5-2 down the stretch and won the game 101-95.

The Kings shot 47.4-percent (37 for 78) from the field. They hit six of 17 (35.3-percent) 3-point attempts. One of Sacramento’s downfalls in the game was its free throw shooting. The Kings were just 15 for 25 (60.0-percent) from the stripe which is well below their season average of 77.5-percent per game.

“I think every game I see, I see progress,” said Kings Head Coach George Karl. “Tonight, because of how we played defensively, we had every opportunity, even after a rough start. We gave up the three-ball in the start, but then we were better defensively. In the fourth quarter, we missed open shots. Those could’ve gone in and gotten us over the hump. I thought New Orleans showed desperation. The have to win some games on the road and they knew that this was one of those games that they had to go and get if they wanted to get ahead of Oklahoma City.”

Sacramento recorded 21 assists and had just 10 turnovers (13 points) for a very respectable 2:1 ratio. The Kings were outrebounded 50-38.

Omri Casspi put up 17 points with a seven for nine shooting night. Ben McLemore also had a 17 point game. Ray McCallum finished with 14 points while Derrick Williams added 10 points in the game.

Sacramento allowed allowed New Orleans to shoot 48.3-percent (14 for 29) from beyond the 3-point arc. Most of the 3-point damage came in the first half.

The Pelicans were led in scoring by Eric Gordon’s 21 points. Gordon hit six field goals, four of which were 3-pointers. Former King Tyreke Evans just missed a triple-double putting up 19 points, grabbing 12 rebounds and dishing out nine assists. Anthony Davis finished with 20 points.

The Kings will return to action on Sunday when they will host the Utah Jazz.

The Pelicans will play the Trail Blazers in Portland on Saturday night.

Live to India

The Kings – Pelicans game was broadcast live to India in hopes that the first player of Indian descent to be included on a NBA roster – Sim Bhullar – might make an appearance in the contest. Because the game was so close up to the end, Bhullar did not play.

The game tipped off at 7:40 AM on Saturday morning in Mumbai.