Pelicans Routed By Nuggets, Davis Exits With Back Spasms

One could tell Anthony Davis wasn't right Wednesday night in Denver. He was jogging back on defense, seemed dazed, and clearly wasn't himself. After only 10 minutes of action, 6 points, and 3 rebounds, Davis exited the game with back spasms and didn't return. Unfortunately the Pelicans seemed to exit with him, getting completely routed by the Denver Nuggets 137-107.

New Orleans allowed more points in the loss than any other game this season. The Nuggets had 105 by the end of the 3rd quarter. The biggest reason was Kenneth Faried. Aptly nicknamed "Manimal", Faried terrorized the Pelicans in the paint, scoring a career-high 34 points in only 27 minutes of action.

Pelicans coach Monty Williams left Center Greg Stiesma and Alexis Ajinca on the floor in a failed attempt to slow down Faried. The "Manimal" got whatever he wanted, and make it look easy.

''Since I've been here, we've never given up those kind of numbers with our defense,'' Williams said.''That's the toughest part for me is allowing teams to score like that. I thought they had way too many easy points in the paint.''

Embarrassing would be a good word to describe the Pelicans interior defense. Non-existent would be another. Denver scored 64 points in the paint.

On a rough night, the lone bright spot for the Pelicans was the offensive play of Tyreke Evans. He led New Orleans with 27 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists.

After a 5 game winning streak in March, the Pelicans have lost 3 in a row, playing bad basketball in the process.

They'll attempt to right the ship Friday night in Salt Lake City. Tip-off versus the Utah Jazz is set for 8:00.