De Marcus Cousins got his 19th technical foul in Miami on Wednesday night as the Pelicans fell to the Heat, 120-112.
Miami won for the fifth time in six games and for the 14th time in its last 15 home games.
Anthony Davis scored 27 points and Cousins contributed 19 for the Pelicans. New Orleans is 2-and-3 in its past five games.
Cousins was called for the foul on Heat center Willie Reed with 3:32 remaining in the first quarter. He later told John Reid of NOLA.com that he believes the technical will be rescinded. If not, Cousins will face another mandatory one game suspension.
“I thought we started the game struggling a little bit," Coach Alvin Gentry said. "We righted the ship and I thought we started to play good basketball. Then it got into an exchange of baskets situation and they made the plays down the stretch. We just didn’t make the plays when we needed to most.”
The Pels dropped to 5.5 games out of eighth place in the Western Conference. They return home Friday for a Southwest Division game vs. Houston.