Derrick Rose rips out hearts by coming through in the clutch with game-winner for Pistons, New Orleans Pelicans drop ninth straight

After coming off their most lopsided regular season defeat in franchise history a few days ago, the Pelicans lost their ninth straight game tonight — the longest losing streak under Alvin Gentry — as Derrick Rose hit a jumper with 0.3 seconds remaining to lift the Detroit Pistons past New Orleans 105-103.

The 2011 MVP took over in the fourth quarter for Detroit, scoring 17 of his 21 points in the frame. The Pistons scored 24 points in the fourth; Rose had 17 and assisted on another to former Pelican and Louisiana native Langston Galloway.

Rose’s game winning shot erased what was an impressive rally by the Pelicans. After showing little to no effort on Saturday against Dallas, New Orleans battled back from a 12-point fourth quarter deficit to seize a small two-point lead with 1:11 to play. Brandon Ingram hit an eight-foot floater to score the final two of his 31 points and give New Orleans a glimmer of hope that the losing skid would end on Monday night. The lead wouldn’t hold as Rose scored the game’s final four points and shook off Jrue Holiday with a nice spin move and hit a turnaround jumper to win the game.

While Brandon Ingram scored all game long, Jrue Holiday was the driving force for the Pelicans late. Holiday scored 10 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter while also grabbing three of his six rebounds. But Holiday threw up a pair of goose eggs from both the free throw line (0-4) and three-point range (0-3). No surprise, he had an inefficient night needing 21 shots to get 20 points.

Speaking of threes and inefficiency, New Orleans had another clunker of a night from behind the arc. After a pathetic 3-32 showing in Dallas, the Pelicans didn’t fare much better tonight as New Orleans shot 8-38 against the Pistons. The Pelicans missed their first ten threes of the third quarter and wouldn’t you know that the six-point halftime lead turned into a three-point deficit before Ingram finally knocked one down.

Kenrich Williams missed all five of his threes; JJ Redick hit one out of eight; Josh Hart went 2-10. Feels like there’s a trend here doesn’t it?

The biggest upset of the night has to be the Pelicans actually played the Pistons to a draw in the rebounding battle. Detroit had one more defensive rebound, New Orleans had one more offensive board and the teams tied 46-46. Even without Derrick Favors, who missed his 12th straight game and 15th overall this season, New Orleans still played Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond to a stalemate.

Griffin was a non-factor Monday night which makes this loss sting even more. Griffin was held to a mere five points and four rebounds and Detroit still found a way to beat the Pelicans. That New Orleans is finding more and more ways to lose to teams is beyond alarming.

We thought Saturday was rock bottom for the Mavericks. It looks like there’s still a ways to go. New Orleans followed up the most lopsided defeat in team history by setting a new record for futility under Alvin Gentry. The last Pelican win came back on November 21, a full week before Thanksgiving. Since then, New Orleans has virtually alternated a close, gut wrenching loss with a thorough beat down; over the past week, New Orleans has lost by 3, 21, 7, 46 (looooollllll) and 2 Monday night against Detroit. So if the trend continues, New Orleans is prime to get blown out. So who is up next for New Orleans?

A road game in Milwaukee against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks.

On national television.

Awesome.