The New Orleans Pelicans should be punching a wall, too.
Or at least kicking themselves after letting both a lead and an important playoff spot slip away on a chaotic final day of the NBA regular season on Sunday.
That chaos wasn’t just because of all the pivotal games that had everybody in the league scoreboard-watching to see how the wild Western Conference race would finish.
That chaos also included the madness taking place inside the Target Center in Minneapolis.
First, Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert punched one of his own teammates, Kyle Anderson, during a first-half timeout.
Then, Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels punched a wall during halftime that fractured his hand and forced him to miss the rest of the game.
Turns out, neither one of those were the biggest blows delivered Sunday.
The biggest was the fourth-quarter gut punch the Pelicans took, one that knocked them from the No. 8 seed to No. 9 in the Western Conference standings.
Now all of a sudden, the Pelicans' postseason run becomes a whole lot rougher than it had to be.
The Pelicans can only blame themselves for this 113-108 loss.
They blew a 14-point lead.
They shot a dismal 3 of 21 on 3-pointers.
And the most disheartening stat of all was this one: They made just one field goal over the final 4:56 of the game and it didn’t come until a Herb Jones dunk with just 17 seconds left.
Making this one so hard to swallow is that the Timberwolves were without two starters — Gobert, who was sent home after swinging at Anderson, and McDaniels. The Pelicans led 55-47 at that time and seemed to be in control on a day when everything was working in their favor to move up in the standings.
The Pelicans had a remote chance to slide as high as the No. 5 seed. Things got off to a great start. Brandon Ingram was on fire, scoring 27 of his 42 points in the first half. Making things even sweeter, the Golden State Warriors were blowing out the Portland Trail Blazers and the Phoenix Suns were beating Los Angeles Clippers at halftime, two scenarios that would have vaulted the Pelicans all the way to the No. 6 seed regardless of what happened in the Los Angeles Lakers and Utah Jazz game.
The Clippers ended up rallying to win, so the 6-seed was no longer in play by the time the Pelicans and Timberwolves got to the final stretch of their game.
However, the all-important 8-seed was in the Pelicans’ grasp before they let it slip away. A team that was on top of the Western Conference standings 3½ months ago now has to settle for the ninth spot with a 42-40 record in a season full of what ifs?
What if Zion Williamson had been able to play more than 29 games this season? What if Ingram had suited up for more than just 44? What if the trio of Williamson, Ingram and CJ McCollum had played more than 10 games together?
None of that matters now. They can only play with the hand they've been dealt, and that's a second straight appearance in the play-in tournament. They should be thankful the NBA implemented the play-in tournament two seasons ago because if not, they would have found themselves on the outside looking in on Sunday.
The Pelicans now have to win two consecutive games to advance from the play-in tournament into the actual playoffs. The journey starts Wednesday at home when they host the 10th-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder. If the Pelicans win, they would then travel to face the loser of the other play-in game between Minnesota and the Los Angeles Lakers. Win that and the Pels would then be the No. 8 seed and advance to play the top-seeded Denver Nuggets.
Yes, the Pelicans took the No. 9 route to the playoffs last season, beating the San Antonio Spurs at home and then going on the road to upset the Los Angeles Clippers before pushing top-seeded Phoenix to six games in the opening round of the playoffs.
But OKC, led by one of the league’s top scorers in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, will be a much stiffer test than those Spurs were. Playing LeBron James and Anthony Davis and the Lakers in an elimination game or heading back to Minnesota to try to avenge this latest loss to the Timberwolves would both be tall tasks if New Orleans can get past the Thunder.
Here's some good news. The No. 9 seed is 4-0 against the 10 seed in the play-in game. Three of those 9 seeds (Pels and Atlanta Hawks last season and Memphis Grizzlies the year before) went on to win the next game to reach the playoffs.
But there’s no room for error now. With the No. 8 seed, the Pelicans would have had two chances to win one game. Now they have to win two in 48 hours starting Wednesday to keep their season alive.
It won’t be easy.
But the Pelicans have only themselves to blame.