New Orleans Pelicans forward Al-Farouq Aminu was in no mood to talk about how great he played Wednesday night. The 4th year pro scored 16 points, grabbed 21 rebounds, and notched 3 steals. In the end, it wasn't enough, as the Pels lost to the Dallas Mavericks 100-97.

"I always grade myself off wins and losses," Aminu said after the loss. "It really doesn't matter what I do. It's a disappointing night."

Pelicans head coach Monty Williams hopes to see the same energy and aggression from Aminu on a consistent basis. Aminu didn't play in last week's win over the 76ers, and didn't play until the second half in a game against the Knicks. Benched for his inconsistent play early in the season, Aminu has responded with an assertiveness that is keeping his team in games, despite missing their star Anthony Davis (pictured) with a fractured left hand.

The rest of the Pelican starters were solid as well. Jrue Holiday scored a game-high 26 while dishing out 9 assists. Ryan Anderson scored 18 while Eric Gordon added 15. Jason Smith was one rebound shy of a double-double, scoring 12 to go with his 9 rebounds.

Dirk Nowitzki scored 21 for the Mavericks, including the final 5 points for Dallas.

Bench play was poor for New Orleans, as they scored 10 points on 2-17 shooting collectively. Dallas' bench scored 31.

"Our bench didn't give us what we typically need from them," explained Williams. "A lot of that is because Ryan (Anderson) is in the starting lineup (for Davis) and that offsets it a little bit."

A three point loss is particularly hard to swallow when you leave plenty of plays on the floor, feeling like you beat yourself.

"We missed a ton of layups tonight," said Williams. "We had some 'my bad' plays all night, a lot of plays that, when we were on the road (3 game winning streak going into Wednesday night), we had a bit more focus."

With the loss, the Pelicans fall back to .500 at 9-9. The Mavericks improve to 12-8.

New Orleans remains home for a Friday night contest with the Oklahoma City Thunder (13-4). Tip-off is set for 7:00.

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