New Orleans, missing stars Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, blew the doors off of San Antonio’s defense with a 37-17 opening salvo to earn ab east win. The Spurs were undone by the Pelicans’ hot-shooting start and its own lost shooting touch and sloppy execution. Though they made two big runs in the fourth quarter, each one was canceled immediately by the singular scoring dominance by CJ McCollum. A much-anticipated breakout game from Jeremy Sochan was not nearly enough to offset McCollum’s production.
McCollum (40 points, 9 assists, and 8 rebounds) and Jonas Valunciunas (16 points and 10 rebounds) led a dominant performance by the Pelicans starters, while the team made over 90% of its free throws.