The comments are so familiar they can be put on a checklist.
As the Minnesota Timberwolves were putting the finishing touches on a 116-98 wire-to-wire whipping of the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday night, it was clear which handful of commonplace buzz words would get uttered when describing the Pelicans’ listless performance.
“Physicality,” Anthony Davis said. “We weren’t physical tonight.”
That was one.
“We weren’t ready to play,” coach Alvin Gentry said.
There’s another.
“They just played with more intensity,” Darius Miller said.
Another check mark.
Explanations like these have become an all too familiar phenomenon this season when the Pelicans perform poorly. Rather than finding simple problems in execution or blaming a cold-shooting night, the Pelicans typically point the finger at themselves in the most controllable area of the game.
Effort.
Inconsistent energy has been the overarching leash on this season, continually yanking the Pelicans back from being a team firmly entrenched in the Western Conference playoff picture. Instead, they’re merely clinging at the edge of it.
Despite being the beneficiaries of an unexpectedly downtrodden West, New Orleans hasn’t climbed out of the No. 8 spot for more than a few days at a time, routinely vacillating within a game of .500. At 19-19, the Pelicans hold an even record for the 12th time this season and the eighth time since the start of December.
They haven’t won more than three games in a row or put together a stretch better than winning four out of five. And the Pelicans’ latest three-game winning streak was recently nullified by losing three of their past four games.
They’ll hope to jump above the .500 water line again, hosting the Detroit Pistons at the Smoothie King Center at 7 p.m. Monday.
But the only way to produce a winning streak, or gain some ground above the magnetic .500 mark, is to play with a sense of urgency on a nightly basis. Considering the stakes of this season and the makeup of the Pelicans’ locker room, it’s a concern the team didn’t expect to fight, especially this late in the season.
The team’s premier players — Davis and DeMarcus Cousins — have never won a playoff game and openly pine for the postseason stage. Meanwhile, veterans Rajon Rondo, Jameer Nelson and Tony Allen were acquired partly for their postseason track record, since they know the path to get there.
But the consistency never arrived. Instead, someone on the Pelicans has pointed to some form of energy problem in news conferences after each of their past three losses.
“I just think we didn’t start with the same energy we normally start with,” Gentry said after last Friday’ loss to the Mavericks.
“We have to come out with more energy from the start,” Davis said following an overtime loss to the Knicks last Saturday.
“We weren’t ready to play, and that’s my fault,” Gentry said Saturday. “I’ve got to get everybody ready to play, but they beat us in all phases of the game.”
And there isn’t a trend line or a particular pattern to the energy shortages. They’ve come when games are played in bunches and after long layoffs.
The curious case was exemplified in Minnesota. After beating Utah on Wednesday, the Pelicans spent three nights in Minneapolis awaiting Saturday’s game, while the Timberwolves landed in the middle of the night, returning from a loss in Boston.
Yet, the Pelicans trailed 69-48 at halftime.
New Orleans is now 2-3 in games when its had three or more days to rest and 3-3 in games with no days in between. There’s no discernible difference in performance.
“I don’t think that matters,” Gentry said after the loss in Minnesota. “It doesn’t mean anything. If you’re a good team, you come to play. The back-to-back and all of that stuff, or four in five nights, it doesn’t mean anything. If you’re a good team, you find a way.”
THREE POINTER
The Pelicans return to the Smoothie King Center to face the Detroit Pistons at 7 p.m. Monday. Here are three things to know:
1. FRIGID
Last weekend, the Pelicans led the NBA in 3-point percentage, converting 38.8 percent for the season. However, over the past four games New Orleans sank to No. 7 in the league, making just 34-of-119 attempts, a league-worst 29.3 percent over that span.
2. GRAB BAG
The Pistons just completed one of the strangest stretches of the season, losing to the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday, before beating the Houston Rockets on Saturday. It’s the latest in a curious string, which included losing last week’s loss to the Orlando Magic preceding a win over the San Antonio Spurs on Dec. 30.
3. EVEN STEVEN
New Orleans knows .500. Not only is the Pelicans record 19-19 on the season, but they’re also 9-9 at home and 10-10 on the road. Despite missing the playoffs three of the past four seasons, the Pelicans held winning records in the Smoothie King Center in all of those years.