The Portland Trail Blazers didn’t look like a team who had played a triple-overtime game the night before.
The Blazers played a three-hour-seven-minute contest in San Antonio, got on a plane, came into the Smoothie King Center, and trounced the New Orleans Pelicans, 114-88.
Pelicans players missed layups. They missed jump shots. They missed slam dunks. They missed free throws. They gave Portland every fast break, slow break, medium break…
The Pelicans just looked broke.
LaMarcus Aldrige had a double-double for the Blazers, scoring 27 points and collecting 12 rebounds. Four other Blazers scored in double digits.
For the Pelicans, guard Austin Rivers was the most dynamic player to take the floor, scoring 21 points, including 11 of 12 free throws.
The 16,079 people the club says were in attendance started clearing out in the third quarter. Even Santa Claus left early.
Fans booed Christmas music. They catcalled the dance team, rather than cheering them. The PA announcer had to threaten ejection for any fan caught throwing objects onto the court.
No Pelicans starter scored in double digits. The team’s overall field goal percentage (field goals are shots taken during a game… pretty much anything that isn’t a free throw) was a miserable 35.3 percent.
The Pelicans travel to Oklahoma City on Sunday (OKC has won 8 of their past 9 games since losing to New Orleans on Dec. 2) and then to Indiana to face the Pacers (8-18) on Tuesday.
