New Orleans Pelicans guard Dejounte Murray finally returned to action on Wednesday against the Toronto Raptors after suffering a fractured hand in his team’s season opener last month, but his first game back didn’t go as planned.
Even with Murray back in action, the Pelicans remained without some key players against the Raptors, and a poor showing from New Orleans resulted in a 119-93 loss at home.
After the game, Murray had a lot to say.
“If you’re not embarrassed and really mad about this, that’s a problem,” Murray said.
He continued.
“It’s not really about the loss, [but] how we lost in front of our fans,” Murray said. “Like, even the fans booing — I mean, what would you do if you was a fan paying your money? You want to come watch a competitive basketball game, especially from your home team. So, they got all the rights to say what they want, feel how they feel. They deserve a better game.”
The Pelicans were without players like Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram and numerous others in the loss, but as Murray sees it, that’s no excuse not to compete.
“When you’ve got guys in, guys out, guys in, guys out, it’s really tough,” Murray said. “But I think it’s not tough to compete.”
He continued.
“You can’t get punked. You can’t get pushed around,” Murray added. “Tonight, it was just disgusting. We’ve got to compete. We’ve got to play harder, no matter who’s on the floor.”
Some fans in attendance expressed their discontent during the game.
The people are fed up and the pelicans are getting booed by the fans pic.twitter.com/oIlx6AQCWj
— Renato (@RPMSports18) November 28, 2024
The Pelicans were outscored in every quarter against the Raptors en route to the 26-point loss. With the loss, the squad has now lost six games in a row and is way below the .500 mark at 4-15.
Murray himself wasn’t particularly sharp in his return. While he did have 14 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals, he shot just 5-for-17 from the field.
He may need a game or two to get his footing back after being on the shelf for an extended period of time. He’s shown an ability during his career to be a do-it-all guard, something the Pelicans are surely hoping to get out of him.
The big concern for New Orleans right now has to be that the team has put itself in quite a hole through 19 games. While the campaign is still relatively young, the Pelicans have the worst record in a Western Conference that isn’t likely to be very forgiving this season. At 4-15, the team is currently six games out of a play-in spot.
Perhaps Murray’s comments will inspire the team to play with an edge moving forward. If the Pelicans can do that and get healthy, they may end up showing some signs of life in the postseason race.
New Orleans’ next game will come against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday as the team begins a three-game road trip.
