-
Andrew LopezESPN
NEW ORLEANS – New Orleans Pelicans coach Stan Van Gundy stabbed his team after a 135-105 beating by the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night, calling his defensive performance “shameful”.
“Look, I understand it’s up to me and what we’re putting out there defensively is frankly embarrassing,” said Van Gundy. “We all have to own it. A lot of it is me and a lot of it is our players, and they have to take some ownership. We didn’t participate tonight, and that boils down to that.
“We didn’t compete. We didn’t help each other. We didn’t play together at both ends of the floor. A really embarrassing night for us tonight.”
The Pelicans looked like a team on a mission to make a playoff push for the first eight minutes of the game – jumping to a 16-point lead in the first quarter. They were surpassed 125-79 in the last 40 minutes of the game.
According to research from ESPN Stats & Information, the Timberwolves have only become the second team in the past 25 seasons to win a game by at least 30 points after trailing at least 15, joining the Chicago Bulls, who fared well against the then Jersey Nets on December 23, 1996.
Minnesota also became the third team to win a game with at least 30 points after entering the game with a win rate of less than .200 for 30 games in the season, according to data from Elias Sports Bureau. The last team to do that was the Cleveland Cavaliers in January 1971.
Van Gundy called it the worst offensive game the Pelicans have played in a while, but blamed their defense – second to last in the league in defensive rating – for the loss.
“We didn’t shoot the ball well and frankly we’re so bad defensively that we can’t have a bad offensive night,” said Van Gundy. ‘We can’t even have a mediocre night. If we have a bad attacking night, we will be crushed like tonight. ‘
The Pelicans shot 43.0% of the field, going 6-of-32 from 3-point range. They also didn’t help themselves to the free-throw line, where they were 13-of-24.
It was a bad night for Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns – 16 points, 7 rebounds, 7-of-19 shooting and 2-of-10 from 3-point range – but great performance from Anthony Edwards (27 points), Jaylen Nowell (28 points, 11 of 13 shooting, 6 of 7 deep) and Jaden McDaniels (20 points, 8 of 9 shooting, 4 of 5 deep) helped them to victory.
It was Timberwolves coach Chris Finch’s first win in six games since taking his first job as head coach in the NBA last month.
[The Timberwolves] played well and got inspired to play. We didn’t seem to care, ”said Van Gundy. We got what we deserved. When I say we, again, I don’t put it all on the players. I’m a big part of that too, but I’m not firing them. We are all. “
Van Gundy said he didn’t know why his team lacked the combat and energy it had shown before halftime, even when losing. But he indicated that it started on Wednesday when the team returned from the All-Star-break.
“In practice, we had no energy yesterday either,” said Van Gundy. “It was one of the worst practices I’ve experienced in my career. I don’t know. Sometimes days off get you lazy. Obviously it helped them and not us. It was a bad, bad performance. can play much better tomorrow night. “
Pelicans striker Brandon Ingram said the team removed the rust a bit after the break, but at 3-10 p.m. he knows the Pelicans don’t have much time left if they want to make a playoff run.
“There are only 35 games left, and we want to play in the playoffs, so we did [to have] the urgency to find out, ”said Ingram.