SAN ANTONIO – It’s frequently said that there’s no rhyme or reason to how often an NBA team wins close games, that the law of averages dictates that over an extended period, a squad will generally succeed about 50 percent of the time in “coin-flip games” that could go either way. Well, the 2017-18 New Orleans Pelicans appear intent on defying that theory.
New Orleans (39-28) enters Thursday’s Southwest Division matchup at San Antonio (38-30) having won nine consecutive games that were decided by five points or less (or in overtime). Dating back to Jan. 1, the Pelicans are 12-2 in those situations, one of the primary reasons they’ve been able to morph from fringe playoff hopeful to in contention for a top-four seed in the Western Conference.