NBA highlights on March 28: Pelicans defeat Bucks with superb defense

The New Orleans Pelicans beat the Milwaukee Bucks 107-100 at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Thursday, continuing to go after a top-four spot in the Western Conference.

The Pelicans and the Bucks are in the league's fifth place in defensive and offensive rating, respectively, which made their game a contest between top defense and offense. In the end, the Pelicans' "shield" snapped the Bucks' "spear."

The prime of the Pelicans' defense was their superb front court size. They have Jonas Valanciunas, Zion Williamson and Herbert Jones in the starting lineup, in addition to Larry Nance Jr. and Trey Murphy in the backup unit. They enabled the team to match the Bucks' big men combination of Brook Lopez, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis in both height and power but also with advantages in agility.

As a result, none of Lopez, Khris Middleton or Portis reached 10 points in Thursday's game. The Bucks committed eight more turnovers (14-6) than the Pelicans, who led 11-1 in steals. Jones alone contributed four of those steals plus three blocks. When he was everywhere on the court defensively in the second quarter, his side outscored the opponents 35-20.

The Pelicans led by as many as 18 points (52-34) in the second period, but the game didn't come to a long-gone conclusion early because of Antetokounmpo's explosion in the third quarter. Having woken up his offensive aggression that wasn't there in the first half, he drew six fouls in the third period by continuously charging the rim and scoring 20 points for the Bucks in this quarter. Jones committed two personal fouls on him before having to sit on the bench with four fouls.

Antetokounmpo got 32 points in the first three periods but added only another three in the fourth quarter because he found himself in foul trouble as well. Williamson made only two field goals (FGs) but went to the free throw line nine times to contribute 11 points in this period. The fourth and fifth fouls of Antetokounmpo were both with his hands.

Having suffered their second straight loss, the Bucks are only 1.5 games above the New York Knicks in the East. The victory kept the Pelicans as close as half a game behind the Los Angeles Clippers, who are fourth in the West. If the two teams finish the regular season in fourth and fifth place with the same record, the Pelicans will be above with the tiebreaker.

In the other game on Thursday, the Atlanta Hawks defeated the Boston Celtics 123-122 in overtime (OT) at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, securing their second win over the league leaders within a week.

Since the Hawks' ace Trae Young is still trying to recover from the surgery to fix his left fifth finger torn ligament, Dejounte Murray continued to shoulder the major offensive load for the team. He shot 44 FGs to drop 44 points, both career highs, in Thursday's game. All of the Hawks' 11 points during the OT were by Murray, who outscored the whole team of the Celtics 11-10.

The Hawks trailed 122-121 when there were 6.2 seconds left in the OT. It took them a lot of effort to pass the inbound throw-in to Murray. He dribbled and faced five-time All-Defensive Team guard Jrue Holiday, broke to the free throw line and then pulled up to shoot the jumper. The ball flew over the fingertips of Holiday and fell into the net for the Hawks to lead again with no more than 0.1 second left for the Celtics, too short to do anything.

Despite Murray's excellent performance, the Hawks' win also came from team efforts. For example, Clint Capela and De'Andre Hunter combined to grab nine offensive rebounds. When Murray missed a game-tying 3-pointer at the end of the fourth quarter, Hunter got the offensive rebound and passed it to Bogdan Bogdanovic, who shot from downtown to drag the game into the OT 112-112.

Jayson Tatum scored a team-high 31 points for the Celtics on Thursday night after going 7-for-22 from the field. He had the chance to end the competition during regular time but missed that key triple from the left wing.