New Orleans Pelicans Awards: Pelicans Fall to a Depleted Dallas Team
To quote Joel Meyers on why the Pelicans lost this game “They outworked ’em, and out hustled ’em.” Mr. Meyers would be correct. Tonight the Pelicans entered the game with a far superior roster to the Dallas Mavericks, yet they were unable to ever make that evidently clear.
The Pelicans got Tyreke Evans back and were missing only Quincy Pondexter. Meanwhile, the Mavericks were missing their star player Dirk Nowitzki, and their starting Point Guard Deron Williams while Chandler Parsons was on a minutes-watch after coming back from injury. One would expect the Pelicans to take care of a game like this, but tonight they failed to break away and establish themselves as the superior team. Mr. Meyers was right, they just got outworked.
MVP: Anthony Davis
Davis was as good as ever tonight, but I’m left wondering if he was utilized to his full potential. He ended the game with 26 points, 12 rebounds (6 offensive), 2 steals, 3 blocks, and a very surprising 7 assists. That’s prime Kevin Garnett on a good day. Still, there was a point late in the fourth quarter where he had taken only two shots post-halftime and we saw yet again another game where Tyreke dominated the ball and the guards of this roster failed to defer to their team’s best player. One interesting thing to note is that Davis did look more comfortable than usual in the post tonight, and had specific spin move/dunk off a mismatch that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen before. In all honesty, Davis could have come dangerously close to a triple double tonight if the offense had continued to run through him throughout the duration of the game and would have likely broke at least 30 points.
LVP: Ryan Anderson
Gentry came out before this game and made a definitive statement that Ryan Anderson was not being shopped by this team and they did not intend to trade him. One might think that gives a player confidence, especially at home, but tonight Anderson looked like a guy totally lost on the court. His defense is terrible on a daily basis, so you rely on his offensive production to at least help you break even in terms of his total effect on the court. When he’s lost on the offense end as well, he’s probably the least valuable player in the league. His stat-line tonight was 10 points, 2/12 form the field, 0/6 from three (yikes), 3 rebounds and a depressing -15 +/- rating for the game. Ryan Anderson is a player you love when he’s hot and hate when he’s cold. Tonight, I’m not sure I can even say he was cold, I think the only way to describe it was that he had basketball hypothermia.
X-Factor: Raymond “Steph Curry” Felton’s Clutch Shooting
Raymond Felton was an assassin tonight. He was all over the floor on defense, playing passing lanes, and hitting insane shots whenever the clock began to wind down. He continues the frustrating trend of there always being one random combo guard bench player who goes off and scores career numbers against the Pelicans for no particular reason. Playing Jrue more and coaching him to lockdown Felton may have helped a little, but if you watched the game and saw the shots this guy was hitting you would understand that even prime Scottie Pippen would be hopeless to contain him. Felton also had one absolutely demoralizing play, which ended up being this games turning point…
Turning Point: Raymond Felton’s Insane Three Point Buzzer Beater with 1.1 Seconds Left on the Shot-Clock to Put the Game Out of Reach:
There was a time in this game when the Pelicans were down by just six points and there was a possibility that they might be able to bring it back. Dallas made their motives clear and did their best to run down the shot clock as much as possible in order to reduce the statistical likelihood the Pelicans are able to make it back. The Pelicans responded with some great defense to close the game. In one of the final possessions, they managed to get Dallas in a real rough spot with the clock winding down, forcing a bad pass which Anthony Davis swatted out-of-bounds with just a few seconds left. The Raymond Felton got the ball like he was Reggie Miller reborn and took a 26 foot fade-away three pointer with 1.1 seconds left that rattled in and put the game out of reach. After that, all hope was lost.
Defining Moment: AD’s Putback
One play that captured the mood of this game was in the final seconds when the Pelican’s guards forced up yet another bad shot to try to come back, followed by little ole’ Anthony Davis running up the paint to dunk it in and draw a foul. That seems like the defining play of the season actually; Davis cleaning up the rest of the team’s mistakes and taking control when he gets the chance to. You can see he’s a guy who really just wants to win, I wish he had teammates who felt the same way.
Read the Preview for this Tragedy of a Game
That was………….. Depressing.
For those of you who are rooting for losses, this game might be exactly what you’ve hoped for. The Pelicans still very well might come out of this thing with a fantastic draft pick that enables them to find a cheap and effective young prospect to develop next to AD. Still, it’s depressing. This team showed so much promise, hope, and grit last season and this year they’re just so “blah” about everything. You always hope they’re about to make an electrifying comeback, but more often than not Tyreke’s just going to force up some 17 footers and their going to lose by ten. I don’t care if it’s wins or losses from here on out, I just want to see change.