New Orleans fought back from a 10-point deficit in the 4^th quarter to tie their longest winning streak of the season (4). The Pelicans stretched their wings in the 4^th quarter and let the gusts building from the fans’ chants carry them to a fantastic team win.   Alexis Ajinca was the man of the match, scoring a career high 24 points, including the winning basket, on 9/10 shooting in just 21 minutes off the bench.

The Heat led 82-73 going into the final quarter and were red hot, shooting 34-62 from the field through the first 3 quarters. However, they were held to just 7-22 down the stretch.

The Heat had two chances to tie or take the lead after Ajinca put the Pels up 104-102 with 25 seconds left. The first chance ended with a fantastic Asik block (though he then inexplicably threw the ball away with 14 seconds left), and the second was a 3-pt attempt by Dwayne Wade that fell short.

The Pels had 5 players in double digits, led by Ajinca’s 24.  Eric Gordon and Tyreke Evans combined for 39 points and 19 assists.  Quincy Pondexter followed up his career night Wednesday with 18 big points, and Dante Cunningham had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

The win puts the Pelicans just one game back of Oklahoma City and one game ahead of Phoenix. In the wake of injuries to Anthony Davis, Ryan Anderson, and Jrue Holiday, the Pels have responded by ripping off a 4 game win streak, all against Eastern playoff teams.

Before the game I mentioned 3 things the Pels needed to key in on to get the win tonight:

• Ball Movement – the Pels had 26 assists on 39 made baskets so no complaints here.  This truly was a great team effort.
• Perimeter Defense – The Pelicans had a much tougher time this go around slowing down the Heat’s offense.  Goran Dragic looked much more comfortable with his new team, putting up 20 points on 13 shots; and Luol Deng had 22 on 11 shots.  But New Orleans found a way to get stops down the stretch, and stifled Miami’s go-to-guy Wade, who shot just 4/16 from the field.
• 3-point Shooting – the Pels came out of the gates hot, with Gordon hitting his first 2 3-pt attempts within the opening 4 minutes, but the Pels only made 4 of their next 13 attempts.  Gordon continued his hot shooting (4-6 from deep on the night), but he was the team’s only 3pt threat tonight.

The Pelicans showed a ton of fight this game, and the crowd really got behind the team as finally managed to overtake the Heat.  Next up is Denver in the Mile High City on Sunday.

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