In an extremely tight race leading into the , the suffered a significant 124-111 loss to the . Devin Booker was the main culprit, putting up a . Pelicans head coach, Willie Green, was not flattered one bit about his team's performance. Booker's performance marked the second time this season he finished with 50 points or more against the Pelicans and was the third straight game dating back to last season that he reached that point threshold against this team. He joined Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in history to score 50 points in three straight games against a single opponent. Green didn't hold back any words regarding his team's performance. "We have to do better. There is no excuse to get 50 put on us twice... We were soft guarding him. We had a soft mentality." - Willie Green Booker finished with 52 points on 60 percent
shooting in a January matchup against the Pelicans in New Orleans. Not only does this mark the second game this season he's dominated in this
fashion, it's the second straight game he's torched the Pelicans on their home court. The Pelicans have fallen into a cold streak at the worst time of the season. New Orleans was at one point one of the hottest teams in the
NBA during March, winning seven of their last nine games. Since that stretch, they are 3-3 and have fallen from fifth in the Western Conference to the sixth spot and only one game ahead of the Suns. However, despite their struggles, they have held the ninth-ranked defense in the league over the last two weeks with a defensive rating of 111.3. That defense was non-existent against the same Suns' team that scored just 102 points in a loss against the without . There are only eight games left in the season and the sixth seed will be the most competitive playoff spot among teams doing their best to avoid the Play-In Tournament. These two teams have a history dating back to the 2022 NBA Playoffs with an intense first-round matchup. In New Orleans' favor, Phoenix holds the strongest remaining schedule in the NBA, while the Pelicans have the 10th easiest schedule remaining. This won't be the last head-to-head outing between these teams as they will face off one last time before the season wraps up on April 7, which may carry tremendous implications on playoff seeding.