Think 4.
That’s the Pelicans’ tragic number entering today. Any combination of Portland wins and Pelicans losses lowers that number. Once that number drops to zero, the Pelicans are officially eliminated from contention. Until then, they aren’t. To say the Pelicans are hanging by the skin of their teeth would be an understatement. Mathematical elimination could happen any time now.
But for one more day, at least, the Pelicans lived to fight another day, beating the Dallas Mavericks 121-118 and stalling their tragic number at four.
Wednesday’s game, versus the team ahead of them in the standings, the Dallas Mavericks, was about as a “game of runs” as it got.