New Orleans — With 12.8 seconds to play in overtime, the Pelicans were leading the Suns 136-133, but after that, things got a little hectic at the Smoothie King Center. Coming-out of a timeout, the Suns went down the court and Josh Jackson hit a contested 3-pointer to tie the game with 2.2 seconds remaining. As soon as he made the bucket, Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry called for a timeout– one his team did not have.
“I called it,” Gentry said. “That was my mistake. That was on me. I called the timeout. We didn’t have a timeout. That’s where the technical came from. I thought we had one left. We didn’t have one left so that’s all on me. I’ll take the hit for that.”
They were assessed a technical foul and Devin Booker knocked-down the free throw to put Phoenix up 137-136. The Suns got the ball after that and the Pelicans had to foul in hopes of getting one last shot. Jackson made one of two from the line and the Pelicans weren’t able to get a shot off in the .6 of a second that remained, and the Suns pulled-out the 138-136 win, handing the Pelicans their 6th-straight loss.
Lost in the mix of the crazy finish, Elfrid Payton filled-out the stat sheet again, recording his 4th-straight triple-double. He finished with 16 points, 16 assists (tying a career high for assists he set Friday night) and 13 rebounds. He was one of nine Pelicans players that scored in double figures.
“Trying to help as much as I can,” Payton said. “Some nights I’m not going to shoot well so I try to get my teammates shots. Sometimes I might not be passing the ball well so trying to rebound the ball, trying to help on the boards and vice versa just trying to impact the game in different ways as much as possible.”
The Pelicans (30-42) have 10 games left in the season now, with their next one coming Monday night on the road against the Mavericks.
