New Orleans Pelicans Awards: Pelicans’ offense falters late in home lose to Indiana Pacers

The New Orleans Pelicans couldn’t get any late offense as the Pacers come back to hand the Pelicans a 91-86 loss at home.

After Anthony Davis left the game in the first quarter with a back injury, the New Orleans Pelicans could not find consistent offense after starting the game with 30 first quarter points.

While the Pelicans dominated the first quarter, their offense completely stumbled the rest of the way, scoring just 56 points in the final three quarters. On the other hand, the Pacers could not get their feet on the floor either, with Paul George having a disappointing game shooting just 3-13 from the field.

The Pacers also had major issues with turnovers all game, finishing the contest with a whopping 24 turnovers. The Pelicans set a franchise high for steals in a game with 21, however the poor shooting and mistakes of their own weren’t enough to hold on for the win. Tyreke Evans led the charge for New Orleans with 27 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals. Ian Mahinmi led the Pacers with 17 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks.

MVP: Tyreke Evans

Tyreke really gets this award by default, because there wasn’t many Pelicans who played well tonight. He really did well attacking the Pacers sluggish defense all night and had a good effort on the rebounds. While his mistakes were highlighted once again, he played well. Shooting 10-19 from the field was mainly due to Anthony Davis’ injury forcing him out of the game, but he still was effective as a #1 option when called upon. These are the kind of games where the confidence level in Evans comes back and fans really see what he’s capable of when set free.

LVP: Norris Cole

While Tyreke Evans’ saw success in being set free all night, the story of Norris Cole‘s poor shooting since the beginning of this year continues to paramount. Cole shot 1-9 from the field and while his two steals added some transition opportunities, he really struggled on defense, chalking up three fouls in just over 22 minutes. While his offense can be a huge asset when he’s on his game, when he’s off there’s not much he brings to the team. He’s a massive liability on defense and takes bad long range twos when better opportunities open up with time and patience.

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X-Factor: The interior play and turnovers

The New Orleans Pelicans SHOULD have won this game with how much the Pacers turned the ball over. However, New Orleans had struggles holding on to the ball of their own. The Pelicans finished with 15 turnovers, which wasn’t nearly as much as Indiana still helped the Pacers come back from their major struggles in their own offense. The Pelicans also didn’t get the job done on the glass, getting crushed in the rebounding battle by Indiana 54-37, including 14 offensive rebounds for the Pacers. The rebounding has been a major problem for this team as a whole, but tonight was a domination by the Eastern Conference visitor.

Turning Point: The empty trip extravaganza!

The Pelicans were up 82-80 with 6:26 left in the game. From that point on, the Pelicans had eight missed shots, three turnovers, one made shot and two free-throws to end the game. That’s horrific when you add in the fact the Pacers only managed 11 points of their own in the final six and a half minutes in the game. The New Orleans Pelicans continue to find major issues in how they finish games, with tonight being a major highlight in their failure to run an efficient offense at the end of games.

Defining Moment: Eric Gordon gets blocked after second-guessing

The Pelicans found themselves only down three with the ball and just 17 seconds on the clock. The game was still in reach. Ryan Anderson got the ball out on the wing and swung it to Eric Gordon open in the corner. However, Gordon hesitated and pump-faked before taking a three-pointer, giving Monta Ellis enough time to recover on Gordon and block his shot, resulting in a Pacers rebound and them being able to ice the game. For a guy like Gordon whose known for having massive confidence when he has space, it was shocking to see him second guess his shot late.

Next: Pelicans keeping Toney Douglas for the season

That was……..another missed opportunity.

With everything that happened in the favor of the New Orleans Pelicans, it was a massive disappointment. Their last game saw no Dirk Nowtizki and tonight saw a huge struggle for Paul George from the floor. And yet, the Pelicans could not find a way to win.