NEW ORLEANS — The postgame jersey exchange seemed inevitable after a showcase of rookies unfolded at Smoothie King Center with Dylan Harper helping San Antonio best New Orleans 135-132 on Monday to spoil a historic night from Pelicans’ rookie Derik Queen.
“I’m happy for him,” Queen said of Harper. “[I] played against him in college, knew him growing up, played against him in middle school. I’m just looking forward to more battles against him. I think I was on Twitter or something. Somebody said the next [draft] class is going to be better than us or something like that.”
Harper and Queen made strong cases for the Class of 2025.
The 13th pick, Queen, scored a game-high 33 points with 10 rebounds, 10 assists and four blocks on the way to becoming the first rookie center in NBA history to produce a 30-point triple-double, according to ESPN Research.
No. 2 pick Harper finished with a career-high 22 points to go along with three rebounds and six assists.
“Special night for him,” Pelicans interim coach James Borrego said of Queen. “He was great. He did a really good job defensively on the boards, controlled the offense. We ran a lot of our stuff through him. He was fantastic.”
So was Harper, a lefty, who pushed past Saddiq Bey with 9.1 seconds left on a physical driving right-handed layup that gave San Antonio a 1-point lead.
“At the beginning of the year I was a little iffy, a little hesitant, like, ‘Yeah, I’m the new guy. I’m trying to figure it out,'” Harper said. “But as the season kept going, my teammates and coaches just encouraged me to be me. Plays like that just show that I’m gonna attack the rim no matter what.”
Teammate Stephon Castle, the 2024-25 NBA Rookie of the Year, took notice.
“He’s just fearless, touching the paint whenever, finding a shot at will,” he said.
Queen nearly countered, as Jose Alvarado found the rookie standing alone in 3-point range at the top of the key. But Queen’s potential game-winner ricocheted off the front of the rim with 3.1 seconds remaining, forcing the rookie to foul De’Aaron Fox, who extended the lead with a pair of free throws.
Queen fueled a sizzling third quarter for New Orleans by racking up 21 points with 5 assists, becoming the fourth player in the play-by-play era to finish a quarter with at least 20 points and 5 assists with no turnovers, according to ESPN Research, joining the company of LeBron James, Brandon Ingram and Tyus Jones. The Pels rookie shot 6-of-6 from the field in the third, draining all nine of his free throws in the quarter, and shot 73.3% overall for the game. New Orleans outscored San Antonio 45-23 in the quarter.
“I’m pretty disappointed in the way we came out in the second half,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “Give them credit. JB’s got them playing hard. They didn’t quit. They made some shots and flipped the game, and then you’re in a dogfight.”
Queen’s last two free throws to close the third quarter gave New Orleans a 102-100 edge headed into the final frame as the Pels erased a 25-point deficit. Queen now ranks as the third rookie in New Orleans franchise history to post a triple-double along with Chris Paul and Darren Collison.
Harper scored 9 points in the final frame on 4-of-7 shooting with 3 assists.
“I think all of us [in the 2025 draft class] played up growing up,” he said. “No matter what, if it was open gym or going to camp together, we wanted to compete against each other. Every All-American game was competitive. Then, when the cameras are not on and nobody’s around, you’re playing with older guys all the time. We had NBA runs. We had college runs. We love to compete.”