New Orleans Pelicans Grades: Pelicans Hold Off Wizards 107-105
It was not pretty but the New Orleans Pelicans escaped some late game chaos and beat the Washington Wizards 107-105 on Friday night.
The New Orleans Pelicans had four days off before facing the Wizards at home with no Bradley Beal, so even without Ryan Anderson anything but a win would have caused an already disappointing season to reach a new low. Alas, the Pelicans were able to squeak out a 107-105 win but it wasn’t pretty and it was due to the hot three-point shooting of the backcourt as Eric Gordon, Jrue Holiday, and Tyreke Evans combined for 13 three-pointers on only 19 attempts.
A-. Reke’s offense today was not fun to watch, definitely not sustainable but tonight it was effective. He drained a career high five three-pointers, but more importantly he continued to struggle playing the style Alvin Gentry wants. Reke was his usual ball stopping self, tonight it worked but it is not ideal for the offense going forward. Also Tyreke Evans is bad in the clutch,really bad, his grade would be worse if they did not win.. PG. New Orleans Pelicans. TYREKE EVANS
Eric Gordon started off this game pretty nice but quite frankly he just disappears at times. A lot of this deals with Reke’s tendency to just pound the ball but either way the offense has to find a way to keep Gordon involved.. SG. New Orleans Pelicans. ERIC GORDON. C+
D-. Zero points, 3 rebounds, 2 assist, -3 plus minus, your starting small forward <strong><a rel=. SF. New Orleans Pelicans. GEE
PF. New Orleans Pelicans. ANTHONY DAVIS. B+. <strong><a rel=
F. <strong><a rel=. C. New Orleans Pelicans. OMER ASIK
A-. Jrue Holiday nailed four threes and brought life to an otherwise stagnant offense. Jrue looks more comfortable coming off the bench and when it comes to running the offense he is head and shoulders the best guard on the roster.. G. New Orleans Pelicans. JRUE HOLIDAY
D-. Ajinca finished with 22 minutes tonight and started the second half, that is where the good ends for him however as he took a number of bad shots and still struggled to understand the concept of help defense. C. New Orleans Pelicans. ALEXIS AJINCA
G. New Orleans Pelicans. NORRIS COLE. D. <strong><a rel=
New Orleans Pelicans. ISH SMITH. B. Ish Smith finished with 8 points and 4 assist in only 15 minutes of game time, clearly outplaying Norris Cole. Smith was in during the final minutes as well so it will be interesting to see if Smith surpasses the struggling Cole in the rotation going forward.. PG
B-. <strong><a rel=. F. New Orleans Pelicans. DANTE CUNNINGHAM
New Orleans returns to action Saturday night in Chicago against the Bulls.