Dejounte Murray described the New Orleans Pelicans’ performance against the Toronto Raptors last night as “disgusting” and says the players ought to feel embarrassed.
The Pelicans were booed by their own fans as the Raptors surged into a 34-point lead in the second half on their way to a 119-93 win that ended a 10-game winless run on the road.
Making his first appearance since fracturing his hand on opening night, Murray scored 14 points as the injury-hit Pelicans slumped to 4-15 in the Western Conference.
Final pic.twitter.com/tciHezzaml
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) November 28, 2024
He said: “If you’re not embarrassed and really mad about this, that’s a problem.
“It’s not really about the loss, [but] how we lost in front of our fans. 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.”
Injuries aren’t an excuse
The home side were without five starters through injury but that wasn’t a good enough excuse, according to Murray.
“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.
“You can’t get punked. You can’t get pushed around. Tonight, it was just disgusting. We’ve got to compete. We’ve got to play harder, no matter who’s on the floor.”
New Orleans face the Memphis Grizzlies tomorrow night with Murray demanding an improvement.
“As soon as we get on that plane, we got to lock in to understanding what just happened,” Murray said. “You don’t want bad habits to carry over.”
