Pelicans at 76ers
The New Orleans Pelicans are enduring a three-game losing streak and went to double overtime before falling against the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday. The Philadelphia 76ers, who host the Pelicans on Thursday, can relate after taking a lead into the fourth quarter and falling to the Grizzlies on Tuesday.
New Orleans' losing streak is following a familiar pattern the team established early this season, with star forward Anthony Davis putting up huge numbers and getting little help from his teammates. “We’ve just got to keep fighting," Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry told reporters. "No one’s going to feel sorry for us. As far as we’re concerned, we’ve got to dig ourselves out of this. It doesn’t matter who’s hurt or not playing. We’ve got to find a way to win games." The 76ers thought they were on the way up a couple weeks ago, but since dropped eight in a row to top their season-opening seven game slide for their worst this campaign. Philadelphia is constantly playing shorthanded with rookie star Joel Embiid sitting out back-to-backs and capped at 28 minutes, but he should be back in the lineup to go against Davis on Thursday.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, TCN (Philadelphia), FSN New Orleans
ABOUT THE PELICANS (7-15): New Orleans picked up its level of play when point guard Jrue Holiday returned after being away from the team until the middle of November, but more injuries are holding back the team's progress. Holiday struggled in the first two games of December and sat out Monday to rest a turf toe issue. Shooting guard E'Twaun Moore, who is third on the team in scoring behind Davis (31.6 points) and Holiday (15.4) at an average of 11.1 points, sat out Tuesday to rest a toe contusion and joins Holiday on the day-to-day list.
ABOUT THE 76ERS (4-18): Philadelphia brought in veteran power forward Ersan Ilyasova via trade last month and is happy with the deal thus far, especially after Ilyasova pulled down 17 rebounds to go along with 23 points on Tuesday. "He’s a quiet assassin," 76ers coach Brett Brown told reporters of Ilyasova. "He’s just as steady as anybody I’ve really coached. There’s a gift upstairs about how he sees the sport. He’s been a great acquisition." Ilyasova is averaging 19.3 points in the last three games and stretches the floor by attempting an average of five 3-pointers and connecting at a 36.7-percent clip.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. 76ers C Jahlil Okafor (illness) sat out the past two games and is day-to-day.
2. Pelicans SG Tyreke Evans (knee) is close to making his season debut and is questionable for Thursday.
3. The home team took each of the last four in the series, including Philadelphia's 107-93 triumph on April 5.