PORTLAND, Ore. — The Pelicans squandered a 17-point lead midway through the fourth quarter with a combination of late possessions that included turnovers, missed three-point attempts, offensive and defensive fouls and missed free throws in the clutch.
The result was a 125-124 loss to Portland, which had Damian Lillard score 50 points and almost single-handedly will a badly-injured Blazers squad past a Pelicans team that had been in control of the game for three and a half quarters.
Brandon Ingram had 30 points and Zion Williamson added 28 for the Pelicans. Lonzo Ball had 11 points and a season-high 17 assists.
Down by 17 with just under six minutes to go, the Blazers whittled the Pels' lead to four points in just two and a half minutes.
Despite frittering away the large lead in what seemed like an instant, the Pelicans still looked to have the advantage with one of its top two players, Brandon Ingram, going to the foul line with 7.2 seconds to go and the Pelicans up by 3. But Ingram missed both free throws.
After Lillard made two free throws to cut the lead to 1, the Pels called timeout and then Nickeil Alexander-Walker fumbled an inbounds pass and Portland had the ball with 4.2 seconds to go.
The Pelicans fouled Lillard who made two free throws and then a Zion Williamson short shot bounced off the rim at the buzzer.
"I gotta knock down those last two free throws," said Ingram, who led the team with 30 points, but who didn't score at all - missing two 3-point shots and those two key free throws - in the last 6 minutes 53 seconds. "I could have just put that away and ended the game."
After an Erik Bledsoe shot put the Pels up 117-100 with just under six minutes remaining, things began to unravel quickly.
Lillard hit a three-pointer. Bledsoe missed a layup. Robert Covington hit a three-pointer. Ingram turned the ball over. Lillard hit another shot. Zion turned it over and committed a foul. Portland hit two free throws. Lonzo Ball missed a three-point shot. The Blazers missed a three-pointer, but got the rebound and hit on a second three-point shot and the lead was down to 4 in just 2 minutes and 23 seconds.
The final seconds ended with the Ingram missed free throws, the dropped inbounds pass, two fouls of Lillard.
It was another inexplicably frustrating performance by a team that has to end with a strong rally to have any hopes of sneaking into the playoffs.
"We just didn't play the way we had played the whole game," said Stan Van Gundy afterward. "The last six minutes of the game, to me, we just quit playing."
To make things even tougher for the Pelicans, they stay in Portland for another matchup with the Blazers Thursday night.
