Pelicans throttled by missiles, losing streak now at 8| Pelicans

On two separate possessions in the second quarter Thursday night, the New Orleans Pelicans secured three offensive rebounds.

They came away empty-handed on both possessions.

It was a night like this in a season like this for the Pelicans, who are still stuck in their rut.

For the second time in seven days, the Pelicans lost to the Houston Rockets.

This time a 128-111 battle in front of a Smoothie King Center crowd that expressed its frustration with boos throughout the game.

“We didn’t execute the game plan, starting with myself,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said. “Just a lack of competitiveness from our group from start to finish.”

The Pelicans (5-26) have now lost eight straight games and 17 of their last 18. They only won one game in December when they defeated the Phoenix Suns on December 5th. This series had no chance of ending on Thursday as the Pelicans were up to 30 points behind.

“We were just soft tonight, period,” Green said. “That’s my level of frustration. There are times when you play against good teams and maybe go down. But as I told the group. It wasn’t like that tonight. “We can go to our home court and play teams,” and the lack of physicality we had tonight was just too easy.

The Rockets made this game look about as easy as last week’s game against the Pels at Toyota Center. The Pelicans lost that game 133-113. That was the most points the Pelicans have allowed in a game this season.

The Rockets (21-9), second in the Western Conference standings, were on track to surpass this early Thursday when they built a 39-22 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Pelicans missed their first 10 3-pointers before CJ McCollum finally made one with 7:45 left in the second quarter. They finished the first half making just 4 of 20 on 3-pointers.

They weren’t much better from close range, shooting a dismal 12 of 32 from the field in the first half and trailing 61-43 at halftime.

Although the Pelicans grabbed 10 offensive rebounds in the first half, they only had five second-chance points.

“It’s always going to be frustrating when you miss a few easy shots and chances to score,” Green said. “But that can’t set the tone for the rest of the game. You have to persevere. You have to stick together. We just didn’t do that well tonight.”

With 8:54 minutes left, Green pulled out of the race.

Trey Murphy, who played despite suffering an ankle sprain in Sunday’s loss to the Denver Nuggets, scored 21 points. That included a thunderous dunk late in the third quarter, one of the few bright spots in this recent loss.

“I care about how much we lose, but I care more about how we lose,” Herb Jones said. “We can’t lose like this.”

The Pelicans are 0-3 on their current five-game homestand, which ends with a game on Friday against the Memphis Grizzlies and then on Monday against the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Grizzlies will arrive in New Orleans on Thursday night following a 155-126 victory over the Toronto Raptors. The 155 points were the most points scored in an NBA game this season.

“We have to look in the mirror tonight and come back and get better,” Green said.