New Orleans enters Friday’s second-half opener vs. Philadelphia six games out of eighth place in the Western Conference, a gap that won’t be made up without a combination of a momentous Pelicans surge and some sputtering by a few key West rivals. Regardless of whether New Orleans (20-33) can play itself back into contention for the No. 8 seed in the conference, however, Alvin Gentry wants his team to show much greater consistency. With a bit less than two months left in the regular season, New Orleans’ longest winning streak is just three games.
“For us, it’s more important to establish some consistency, as we’ve talked about the whole year,” Gentry said prior to tonight’s game at the Smoothie King Center.