Six (W’s 106, Pelicans 102)

Quite remarkable how much balm even a single win can provide in a 6-24 season.

(And, to boot, a single win, at home, against a 7-23 opponent.)

And does it count most for the players themselves, for home-crowd fans, for teaching coaches?

Because you want some intermittent signposts of improvement. You want a generally upward trend. And that path doesn’t necessarily have to be consistently strewn by (enough) wins. But it can’t be utterly devoid of them either.

3.19 left in the 1st quarter; 6.53 in the 2nd; 8.52 in the 3rd.

They say that NBA basketball is “a game of runs.”

That’s true enough.

But there’s time you can equally say that it’s “a game of collapses.” (Or “runs” in the sense of dysentery.)

I…