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SPORTS Monday 9 March 2020

Holiday has 37 points help Pelicans top Timberwolves 120-107

By DAVE CAMPBELL averaging more than 27 old and first overall pick in
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The points. the draft had four dunks in
New Orleans Pelicans have "When they made their the first 7 1/2 minutes of the
perked up since the debut push, we got stops, and we game, including two off
of Zion Williamson. got some big stops, and the perfect lob passes from Ball
The presence of Jrue Holi- momentum shift went the that came during a 21-4
day, though, can't be dis- other way," Holiday said. spurt by the Pelicans cover-
counted in their improve- "We didn't want to happen ing barely more than four
ment. what happened last time." minutes. The first alley-oop
Holiday just missed his sec- Williamson's first appear- from Ball traveled almost
ond triple-double against ance in Minnesota and the three-quarters of the court.
Minnesota in less than a matinee tipoff time con- The Wolves surged right
week, putting up a season- tributing to a sellout crowd back with a 17-3 run. Just
high 37 points and adding of 18,978, the two highest- a half-minute later, Jake
nine rebounds and eight scoring teams in the NBA Layman's soaring slam
assists for the Pelicans in a over the four-plus-week over Derrick Favors had the New Orleans Pelicans' Jrue Holiday, center, shoots ball over
Minnesota Timberwolves' Juancho Hernangomez in the second
120-107 victory over the span since the trade dead- players on the bench be- half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, March 8, 2020, in Min-
Timberwolves on Sunday. line on Feb. 6 did not disap- side themselves with glee. neapolis.
"Jrue was incredible today. point for action. "It was a great pass by Associated Press
These performances from Williamson took all of 16 D-Lo, and I knew I could
him have been coming a seconds to assert himself, beat Zion off the dribble," quarter, but they were "We got a lot of great looks.
lot lately," said Williamson, bullishly driving into the Layman said. "But the loss never able to get in front It happens in the NBA, but
who scored 23 points on lane with little impediment is more what I'm thinking and fell behind by as many we can't let that dictate
9-for-15 shooting. "It was on the first possession and about right now." as 20 points after halftime. the whole game. We've
one of those games where, throwing down a two- The Wolves were tied half- They finished just 8 for 33 got to make sure we de-
we need a bucket to get handed slam. The 19-year- way through the second from long range. fend still," Beasley said.q
the momentum back, he
was there."
Lonzo Ball had 18 points
and eight assists, and Bran-
don Ingram pitched in 15
points and 12 rebounds to
help the Pelicans start a
four-game trip with the vic-
tory.
Malik Beasley had 21 points
and nine rebounds, and
D'Angelo Russell scored 19
points for the Timberwolves.
They got 42 points from
their reserves.
Still harboring an out-
side shot at the playoffs,
the Pelicans passed Port-
land for 10th place in the
Western Conference and
pulled within four games of
eighth-place Memphis with
Sacramento in ninth place.
The Pelicans are 11-7 over
their last 20 games and
have won 15 of their last 18
games against opponents
with losing records.
Even the defense has en-
joyed an uptick following
Williamson's debut after the
super-sized, super-skilled
rookie missed more than
half of the season recover-
ing from knee surgery. New
Orleans held the Timber-
wolves to 22 fewer points
than in its 139-134 defeat
at home five days ago.
Holiday had 27 points,
10 rebounds and 12 as-
sists in that game. This was
his fourth 30-point perfor-
mance of the season. In
three matchups with the
Wolves this season, he's