Rod Walker: Pelicans handled their business on road trip, now must do same on 4-game home stand

If someone had told you this time a week ago that the Pelicans would go 3-1 on their most recent road trip, you probably wouldn’t have believed them.

In fact, you probably would have responded “no way.” 

And really, who could blame you? After all, this was a team that had won just 12 of 36 games away from the Smoothie King Center.

For the Pelicans, road trips have been as bumpy as the streets in the city they call home.

It didn’t help matters that the slate looked so daunting, with games against the Los Angeles Clippers, Portland Trail Blazers, Golden State Warriors and the Western Conference-leading Denver Nuggets.

Most fans would’ve been cool with 2-2 against that gauntlet. Instead, the Pelicans went 3-1. And if it hadn’t been for a second-half collapse against a Warriors team they led by 20, they would have swept the road trip.

But 3-1 isn’t bad at all.

The Pelicans now have had eight road trips this season with three games or more. This was the first one they finished with a winning record

Coach Willie Green called this a business trip before they left last week. For 14 of 16 quarters, they played like it was just that.

Green’s assessment of the trip?

“It’s a good trip,” he said after Thursday’s win over the Nuggets. “(Winning) two games is solid. Three games is good. Four games is great. We’ll take good. Three out of four.”

On this trip, the Pelicans were good and oh-so-close to great.

They now have won six of their last seven games, peaking at the most important time as they try to maneuver through the logjam of the Western Conference standings. The average margin of victory in the last six wins is an impressive 23 points. All six wins have been by double digits.

For a time on Tuesday night, it looked like they may get another such win but were unable to hold a 17-point lead against Steph Curry and the Warriors. They blew that lead, which so many teams have done in that building this season. The loss led to many overreactions, if you know anything about Golden State’s history. It was the Warriors’ 12th time erasing a double-digit deficit this season — all coming in Chase Center in San Francisco.