The New Orleans Pelicans, who were listed as a 17-point favorite, beat the Portland Trail Blazers Thursday evening by a final score of 127-94.
A decisive victory didn’t appear in the cards at the outset.
With close to a minute left in the first quarter, the Pelicans had a 29-26 lead. But then a near three-minute spurt that stretched into the second quarter swung the momentum to New Orleans for the remainder of the contest.
New Orleans came up with steals on four consecutive Portland possessions during this span and most were not of the finger-tip deflection variety.