Pelica Debrief
Fansided

New Orleans Pelicans unable to respond late, lose to Portland Trailblazers 99-90

By Matt Cianfrone

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The New Orleans Pelicans entered Portland on Saturday night facing a tough task. With their playoff destiny in their own hand the Pelicans just needed to win to keep themselves in line to win the eighth seed in the Western Conference playoffs.

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Early on things looked great for the Pelicans, as they jumped out to a 14-4 lead in the first few minutes of the game. Then the bench entered and everything fell apart to end the half. But the Pelicans battled back throughout the second half and even took the lead in the fourth quarter before a late Blazers run handed the Pelicans a tough 99-90 loss.

It was nice to see <strong><a href=. SG. New Orleans Pelicans. ERIC GORDON. B+

B+. The only reason the Pelicans were even remotely in the game at halftime was the play of <strong><a href=. SF/PG/SG. New Orleans Pelicans. TYREKE EVANS

New Orleans Pelicans. ANTHONY DAVIS. D. <strong><a href=. PF/C

C. New Orleans Pelicans. OMER ASIK. C. As always <strong><a href=

RYAN ANDERSON. C-. <strong><a href=. PF/SF. New Orleans Pelicans

New Orleans Pelicans. DANTE CUNNINGHAM. F. This wasn’t a game for <strong><a href=. SF

D. For the first time in a while <strong><a href=. SF. New Orleans Pelicans. QUINCY PONDEXTER

D. Yet again the Pelicans sat Omer Asik and immediately got killed on the offensive glass as Ajinca struggled to keep <strong><a href=. C. New Orleans Pelicans. ALEXIS AJINCA

D. The shooting line looks ok for Cole but it was all the stuff around it that was ugly. His decision-making was suspect, he got lit up on defense and he even fouled a three-point shooter in the fourth quarter. It wasn’t good. . PG. New Orleans Pelicans. NORRIS COLE

D. Not a great night for the bench all around. <strong><a href=. PG/SG. New Orleans Pelicans. TONEY DOUGLAS

Other observations: 

  • This is a tough loss but it isn’t killer. It puts more pressure on the Pelicans to beat either the Memphis Grizzlies or Houston Rockets in the next few games but either are possible. The Thunder have a brutal schedule that continues tomorrow against the Rockets so New Orleans can be back in the 8 seed by tomorrow night.
  • Anthony Davis clearly isn’t right and I think it may just be fatigued. Davis has played a lot of minutes this year and his shots lately have been short and he has stopped going to the rim as often. He needs to get it figured out though because the Pelicans don’t make the playoff without him playing like he is capable of.
  • The officiating wasn’t great in this one but I didn’t think it was as bad as many others did. There were blown calls both ways but the officials consistently let the game be physical which should have played into the Pelicans hands with Asik and Evans. It didn’t.
  • The bench was just brutal tonight. Every time New Orleans had to use multiple bench players the Blazers went on a run. Just ugly.
  • Next up is the Warriors on Tuesday so this may get worse before it gets better.

Tweet of the night: 

Not great. Not great at all.

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