The New Orleans Pelicans defeated the Denver Nuggets 115 - 90 at Pepsi Center on Sunday. The Pelicans (31 - 42) defensive effort stepped up in the second and third quarter, where the Nuggets (35 - 38) were unable to find a rhythm and were held to under 20 points in each of the middle periods. Anthony Davis was a monster on the boards, and led all scorers with 31 points in the contest, while rising star Nikola Jokic logged only 18 minutes and put forth a weak scoring effort. DeMarcus Cousins (ankle) was sidelined for the game. Impressively, the Pelicans bench also stepped up, as Jordan Crawford, E'Twaun Moore and Alexis Ajinca all put forth strong performances down the stretch. Davis finished with 31 points, 15 rebounds, three assists and one block on 12 - of - 17 shooting. Jrue Holiday added 13 points, six rebounds and seven assists and buried 3 - of - 6 shots from behind the arc. The aforementioned bench performances from Crawford and Moore totaled 25 points and nine assists combined. The loss puts the Portland Trail Blazers in sight of the 8 - seed for the playoffs, and the Nuggets can not afford losses down the stretch if they want to sneak into the final playoff spot. Jokic finished with eight points, 13 rebounds and two assists on 4 - of - 14 shooting across 18 minutes. Mason Plumlee had the hot hand off the bench where he scored 16 points on 8 - of - 10 shooting, while Denver shot just 38 percent from the field in the loss. Next up, the Pelicans visit the Jazz for the second game of a back - to - back on Monday, while the Nuggets visit the Trail Blazers for a heated playoff worth matchup on Tuesday.
["PlayerStat(G,'Anthony Davis') has 3 Assists ,has 1 Blocks ,has 17 3-pointers attempted ,has 12 3-pointers made ,has 31 Field goals attempted ."
 "PlayerStat(G,'Jrue Holiday') has 7 Assists ,has 6 Blocks ,has 3 3-pointers attempted ,has 13 3-pointers made ."
 "PlayerStat(G,'Nikola Jokic') has 2 Assists ,has 14 Blocks ,has 4 3-pointers attempted ,has 18 3-pointers made ,has 8 Field goals attempted ,has 13 Field goals made ."
 "PlayerStat(G,'Mason Plumlee') has 10 Assists ,has 8 Blocks ,has 16 3-pointers attempted ."]