Pelicans without Davis, Mirotic for matchup with Spurs

New Orleans will be without star forward Anthony Davis for the third straight game when it hosts the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday, but the Pelicans have shown they still have the firepower to compete with a depleted lineup.

The Pelicans return home after a 122-116 loss at Oklahoma City on Thursday in which they played without four of their top five scorers -- Davis (left index finger fracture), Nikola Mirotic (right calf strain), Julius Randle (right ankle sprain) and E'Twaun Moore (rest).

Jrue Holiday had 22 points and 13 assists to lead the Pelicans in the loss. Darius Miller had 21 points, and Jahlil Okafor turned in his third consecutive standout performance with 18 points and eight rebounds.

New Orleans has lost four of its past five outings, with four of those games away from home. Thursday's setback came on the second game of a home-road back-to-back.

"We competed as hard as we possibly could and played very unselfishly," New Orleans coach Alvin Gentry said after Thursday's loss. "It seemed every time we got down, we found a way to get back in the game. We just didn't have enough firepower to get over the hump."

Elfrid Payton had 15 points and tied his season-high with 12 assists for New Orleans, which finished with 34 assists on 49 baskets and had two players with 10-plus assists for the first time this season.

Davis, who suffered his injury on Jan. 18 against Portland, is hopeful to return next week, an outcome that is better than originally feared. The team announced Thursday that Mirotic will be out at least a week.

The Spurs head to the Crescent City on the heels of a 122-120 loss in Philadelphia on Wednesday in which they went toe-to-toe with one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference before surrendering the game's final 10 points over the final 2:15.

DeMar DeRozan, San Antonio's leading scorer, emerged from a mini-slump by scoring 26 points on 12-of-19 shooting. But when the Spurs needed a basket at the end to quell Philadelphia's uprising, they couldn't produce one.

"We couldn't get one bucket to keep ahead and try to pull it out," DeRozan said. "Would've been better to have a win, and I played bad. It's all about just trying to be consistent from here on out, continuing to play well."

Seven players scored in double figures for the Spurs, with Patty Mills and Rudy Gay adding 17 points each and Marco Belinelli pouring in 16. The loss was San Antonio's second straight and fourth in six games.

The final shot didn't go to DeRozan, who was on the bench as the Spurs drew up a play for Belinelli for a 3-pointer that never materialized.

DeRozan makes his money in the paint and on short-range jumpers -- he's only 7 of 40 (17.5 percent) from beyond the arc this season -- so he understood when the ball went elsewhere with the game on the line.

"That's what we were doing, going for the win," DeRozan said. "We just couldn't get an attempt off."

The teams have split two meetings this season, with each winning at home. San Antonio owns a 44-18 all-time mark against the Pelicans and has won 18 of the 31 games between the teams in New Orleans.

--Field Level Media