New Orleans Pelicans: Game grades for win over Oklahoma City Thunder
A night after a blowout loss to the Portland Trailblazers the New Orleans Pelicans went on the road to face an Oklahoma City Thunder team missing their best player. It was the perfect chance for the Pelicans to bounce back from a bad loss and steal a game that many would have projected to be a loss over a team that they are fighting with for a spot in the Western Conference playoffs. Despite some late game execution that could be described as bad at best the Pelicans did just that, beating the Thunder 101-99.
. 149. 101. 69. Final
JRUE HOLIDAY. A. <strong><a href=. PG. New Orleans Pelicans
SF/PG/SG. New Orleans Pelicans. TYREKE EVANS. A. <strong><a href=
ANTHONY DAVIS. A+. I’m not sure there is much more to say about how great <strong><a href=. PF/C. New Orleans Pelicans
C. New Orleans Pelicans. OMER ASIK. B. <strong><a href=
PF/SF. New Orleans Pelicans. RYAN ANDERSON. C+. The fourteen points of the bench was nice but Anderson continued his struggles shooting from behind the arc on the road with a 3-9 shooting day. He also continued to be a big problem on the defensive end of the floor as the Thunder got inside at will with Anderson in the game as the main rim protector. That defensive effort has to change soon.
A-. It was a really nice night for <strong><a href=. PG/SG. New Orleans Pelicans. AUSTIN RIVERS
D. In seven minutes the only thing Salmons added to the box score was a personal foul. He is bad. . SF. New Orleans Pelicans. JOHN SALMONS
C. Babbitt making threes is great but at a certain point he needs to stop being a part of the worst heavy minutes defensive lineup the Pelicans have. Putting the team in a hole early in the game is a tough thing to come back from consistently and the Pelicans are putting themselves in that position with Babbitt in the starting lineup.. SF. New Orleans Pelicans. LUKE BABBITT
A. <strong><a href=. C. New Orleans Pelicans. ALEXIS AJINCA
A-. The energy and effort was there as always with Cunningham but he needs to start turning the foot on the line long twos into threes. There is no excuse for two foot on the line shots a game.. SF. New Orleans Pelicans. DANTE CUNNINGHAM
Other observations:
- What a terrific win for New Orleans. Yes the Thunder were without Kevin Durant but they have still been playing well lately and the Pelicans played last night. This is a very important win in the playoff race and the Pelicans getting it is potentially going to pay off big time going forward.
- The big linuep worked well late and I wonder if we start seeing it more and more. Ryan Anderson has been a sieve on defense all year and needs to play with Asik so this is a perfect way to make it happen while giving the starters spacing. It can’t be worse than the Babbitt lineup.
- That late game offense was horrific. From the Jrue Holiday 26 footer out of a timeout to the Tyreke Evans mid-range brick on the final Pelicans possession it was just bad look after bad look. Davis has to touch the ball and get a shot more than once in the last 2:40. He just has to.
- The Pelicans face a bad Pacers team on Tuesday. That should be another win.