New Orleans Pelicans Awards: Pelicans fall short in overtime against Los Angeles Clippers

The New Orleans Pelicans came close and found a way to send it to overtime, but couldn’t get it done late without superstar Anthony Davis as they fell to the Los Angeles Clippers 114-111.

The Pelicans found their way into overtime after a crazy situation late in regulation, however they could not find the answers to get past the Clippers and fell on the road.

The beginning of the game was a similar tale, as the Pelicans turned a first-quarter lead into a big deficit at halftime, giving up 37 second-quarter points to a hot-shooting Clippers teams. However, Clippers mistakes and Pelicans execution helped them climb back into the game. In overtime, New Orleans had many chances to find the lead, yet their shooters couldn’t find any rhythm and they stayed behind for most of the overtime.

Jrue Holiday led the scoring for the Pelicans with 29 points. New Orleans could not stop Chris Paul, who finished with 25 points, 11 assists and three steals.

MVP: Jrue Holiday

Jrue Holiday seemed to will this team back into the game late when the Pelicans should have been out of it. He finished the game with 29 points, four assists, three steals and 11 rebounds. He took command of the offense late and really got involved on the defensive end as would be expected. It seems like a running theme in these games where the Pelicans see a near-insurmountable deficit late in the game and yet Jrue leads the team to get their hands in the passing lanes on defense and helps make life difficult for other teams. His effort and leadership tonight in a game the team’s true leader was out with an injury is a great thing to see.

LVP: Eric Gordon

The main thing that got Eric Gordon the LVP of the game was on the defensive end. He had a sub-par shooting performance on the night, shooting 3-10 from the field for seven points. The past few games have seen him struggle on the offensive end. However, the biggest problem was his defense and letting his man find open looks, whether it was Jamal Crawford or Wes Johnson. He still has not been able to find any consistency in how he’s guarding opposing speedy and effective shooting guards. It’s tough to see it improving after years of the same problems on this team. 

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X-Factor: The bigs played BIG

In a big surprise, the Pelicans bigs actually put their stamp on this contest. New Orleans won the rebounding battle 56-47 and Omer Asik had a really, REALLY good game tonight. Asik finished with eight points and 11 rebounds in 26 minutes, while Alexis Ajinca had a game of his own with nine points and six rebounds in 14 minutes. DeAndre Jordan finished with only 12 points and 11 rebounds in 42 minutes, which you can take as a huge victory in a game he could’ve very well taken over. If Omer and Ajinca can become as important as they were last year, this team could become a lot more competitive the rest of the season.

Turning Point: Austin Rivers fouls Jrue Holiday 

The Pelicans found themselves down three with four seconds to go and a free throw for the Clippers. However, Los Angeles missed the free throw and the Pelicans had one chance to put up a Hail-Mary three. When Jrue went up with the three-pointer, Austin Rivers got a little too close contesting the shot and had a foul called on him, giving Holiday three free-throws. Jrue took the pressure on full-force and buried all three free-throws. In a game that looked all but over, Austin Rivers gave New Orleans an extra life in this game that sent the contest to overtime. Crazy.

Defining Moment: Ryan Anderson misses the game tying shot

Down three with 10 seconds left, the Pelicans brought the ball up and tried to set up a three-pointer. Ryan Anderson got the ball and tried to step back for the shot, yet his shot was off and the Pelicans couldn’t get another overtime. It wasn’t really the best shot possible, but with no timeouts and having to set up off a free-throw, it couldn’t have been easy. Missed opportunities.

Next: Is Omer Asik getting better?

That was……..encouragingly close.

For a team that didn’t have their superstar, you can’t really hark on this too much. The New Orleans Pelicans probably shouldn’t even have been in the game, yet they found a way to will themselves into it. Sure, it ended in an overtime loss, but that has to exceed the expectations many had for them going into this game against the red hot Clippers.