When the streaking New Orleans Pelicans visit the struggling Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night, Trey Murphy III will attempt to follow up a game in which he was hotter than lava.
In Saturday’s 131-110 defeat of the host Los Angeles Clippers, Murphy scored 32 points and hit a career-high 10 3-pointers in just 12 attempts. Additionally, 32 were scored by Brandon Ingram as the Pelicans won their fourth consecutive game.
Murphy, who scored 41 points and made a then-career-high nine 3-pointers in New Orleans’ 127-110 home victory over Portland on March 12, will be pleased to see the Trail Blazers. He made just 13 of 20 field goals.
For New Orleans (37-37), which currently sits in eighth place in the Western Conference, Murphy has made 37 of 70 (52.9 percent) attempts from 3-point range over the course of the previous seven games. With eight games remaining, the Pelicans are one game from qualifying for the playoffs in the top six.
Murphy assisted New Orleans in tying the team record of 21 points in a game, but he missed the mark set by CJ McCollum by one 3-pointer.
The Pelicans are playing well at an important time, despite missing Zion Williamson for 37 games.
During the winning streak, New Orleans has prevailed by an average of 21.3 points.
The Pelicans had previously won by scores of 10, 35, and 19 points prior to their 21-point victory over the Clippers in the first game of a four-game road trip. In each of their victories, they put up a total of at least 115 points.
With eight losses in their last nine games, Portland (32-42) has fallen out of the race for a play-in spot. The Trail Blazers’ problems got worse on Sunday when they lost 118-112 to the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder.
The possibility that the team might bench Damian Lillard for the season persists, as he missed his second consecutive game with a calf injury. Individual starters Jusuf Nurkic (knee), Jerami Award (quadriceps) and Anfernee Simons (foot) likewise sat out while Trendon Watford (lower leg) left in the principal quarter and didn’t return.
Shaedon Sharpe, a rookie, had a career-high 29 points in his third game in a row with 20 or more points. During this stretch, he is scoring an average of 25.7 points.
Nassir Little impressed coach Chauncey Billups by playing 31 minutes off the bench and scoring a season-high 28 points.
Over the previous three games, Little, a fourth-year professional, scored eight points on 3-of-14 shooting. However, he shot 11 of 21 shots with confidence against the Thunder.
This season, the Pelicans have defeated the Trail Blazers 2-1, and they have won five of the last six meetings.
