MIAMI (AP) CJ McCollum scored 30 points, Jose Alvarado added 17 and the New Orleans Pelicans comfortably won 111-88 over the Miami Heat on Friday night.
It was McCollum’s fifth 30-point game of the season and second in the last week. Trey Murphy III scored 14 points and Naji Marshall 13 for New Orleans, which got only 4 points from Zion Williamson in 25 minutes and still lost.
Jimmy Butler scored 17 points for the Heat, which was 4 games behind Orlando in the Southeast Division race and lost a possible probability to get out of tournament reach. Terry Rozier scored 13 points and Bam Adebayo finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds for Miami, making 13 of 47 from 3-point range.
The Pelicans were missing Brandon Ingram, who will likely be sidelined for at least two weeks due to a bone bruise in his left knee. He was injured in Thursday’s loss to Orlando, but the Pelicans say he will likely be re-evaluated early next month, which might mean before the end of the regular season.
“We’re going to miss him, he scores 20 points a game, he’s our team leader in assists, so we’re definitely going to miss him,” Pelicans coach (*30*) Green said. “But we’re grateful it wasn’t anything more than it was. …We will miss him. The next ones just have to step up.”
Miami was again missing Tyler Herro (foot), Duncan Robinson (back) and Kevin Love (heel). And when the Heat cannot rating, they can not win – they’re currently 2-15 once they rating 100 or fewer points, compared to 36-17 once they rating 101 or more points.
The Heat have lost 10 of their last 17 home games. The team, which began the game on Friday with the ninth best away record this season (21-16), is currently only 17-16 at home, which at the end of the match is the nineteenth best end in the league.
“We just weren’t ok. We all know that. We’re aware of that,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
It was the first meeting between the two teams since Feb. 23, when a brawl broke out between the teams and 4 players – Butler and Thomas Bryant of the Heat; Alvarado and Marshall for the Pelicans were ejected from the game that became a 106-95 victory in Miami. Later, Butler said, “Next time we’ll beat them too.”
The Pelicans clearly remembered. Green predicted before the game that his team would feel extra emotion given what happened a month ago against the Heat.
“For us, it’s simple,” Green said. “Go out, execute the game plan, play our style and play to our standards.”
Butler opened the second half with a three-point play that put Miami up by one, and the Pelicans immediately responded with an 11-0 run to maintain control. New Orleans trailed early 18-7 before gaining the advantage, trailing just once in the last 36 minutes – and that was just 22 seconds into the second quarter.
IN THE FUTURE
Pelicans: Visit Detroit on Sunday.
Heat: Host Cleveland on Sunday night.
