Pelicans lose Davis and Anderson, still thump Bosh-less Heat

Goran Dragic's career in Miami has gotten off to an inauspicious start.

Little more than 24 hours after arriving from the Phoenix Suns in a deadline-day trade, Dragic's new teammate, Chris Bosh, was ruled out for the season with blood clots in his lung.

Playing without their frontcourt anchor, the Heat hosted the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday night in Dragic's debut, and sputtered to an ugly 105-91 loss.

Maybe there was some sort of dark magic emanating from Dragic, because late in the first quarter the Heat saw their odds of winning spike significantly when Pelicans power forward Anthony Davis was forced to leave the game with a re-aggravated shoulder injury.

Minutes later, it was small forward Ryan Anderson going down with a sprained knee after getting his foot stepped on.

Somehow, the Pelicans kept building their lead. The Heat looked out of sorts, repeatedly blowing assignments on defense and proving unable to hold onto the basketball at the other end. Dragic, perhaps understandably, looked lost. He had a forgettable night, shooting 4-of-11 on his way to 12 points. After all that talk about wanting to feel like a point guard again, he picked up exactly one assist.

Meanwhile, Pelicans shooting guard Eric Gordon, who's been coming on strong lately after a horrendous start to the season, buried 6-of-11 triples on his way to a game-high 24 points. Center Omer Asik, soaking up a bunch of Davis' minutes, went for 15 points and nine rebounds.

And point guard Norris Cole, playing against the team that traded him to the Pelicans just two days ago, had a solid game off the bench, chipping in 12 points on four-of-nine shooting, and grabbing six rebounds for good measure.

The Heat never led, and never even made it close in the second half, when they trailed by as many as 25 points. Bosh is expected to be fine in the long-term, but you can understand the Heat being distracted the day after hearing the diagnosis. They played like it.

When the Dragic trade was completed, some considered the Heat Eastern Conference contenders. Things may well turn around for them as Dragic gets acclimated, but at this point, they should be a lot more concerned about making the playoffs than about what they can do when they get there.