New Orleans Pelicans Awards: Pelicans doomed by offensive woes against the Washington Wizards

The New Orleans Pelicans’ offensive woes spelled doom against the hot-shooting Washington Wizards 109-89.

The New Orleans Pelicans had won four of their last five games going into tonight’s contest, yet could not get their offense going all night in their loss to the Washington Wizards.

New Orleans trailed 54-51 at halftime and looked to have a decent chance at keeping up the win streak. The Wizards then went on a 14-0 run to start the third quarter led by strong three-point shooting on Washington’s end and a completely muddled and mistake-filled offense for the Pelicans.

From there, New Orleans could never find their way back into the game all night. The Wizards took full advantage of the Pelicans limited offensive weapons and used theirs to take full charge in the second half.

John Wall finished the game for the Wizards with the triple-double of 16 points, 11 assists and 12 rebounds. Marcin Gortat led Washington in scoring with 21 points. The Pelicans were led by Jrue Holiday, who scored 20 points along with 11 assists. Ryan Anderson also had a strong game with 16 points and four rebounds.

MVP: Ryan Anderson

With how much Ryan Anderson has been struggling on the road, his performance tonight in Washington has to be the lone positive out of this game. Anderson finished the game 7-11 from the field shooting for 16 points, second on the team in points on the night. He added along four rebounds, two assists and two steals. He was active everywhere in a game the rest of the team seemed asleep. He found ways to get open and took good looks, for the most part. He shot the three well, didn’t turn the ball over and did his best on the defensive end, even though the size of Washington’s bigs made it tough for him to make an impact on that end. Still, he’s been a disaster on offense outside of New Orleans. To get this kind of game from him on the road is a massive plus.

LVP: The Centers

It’s impossible to pick one player here, so let’s go with both centers in this game. Alexis Ajinca and Kendrick Perkins both played horrific basketball tonight. Ajinca spent most of his time guarding Marcin Gortat, who completely dominated the matchup and made life much more difficult for the Pelicans. Gortat finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds in the game, commanding the paint on offense and defense, giving his team easy points and making it more difficult for the Pelicans to score. Kendrick Perkins didn’t do any better, as the combo of him and Ajinca combined 2-6 from the field and eight rebounds in 35 minutes, while giving up a total of 20 rebounds to Gortat and Wizards backup center Nene Hilario. In a game the Pels really needed their bigs, they did not show up.

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X-Factor: Turnovers

For a team that’s been very successful at keeping the turnovers at a minimum in each game, the New Orleans Pelicans struggled mightily with turnovers in the contest tonight. The Pelicans finished with 16 turnovers in the game, only two more than Washington had in the game and 3.4 more than their average this season. One of the biggest issues New Orleans did not account for in the game was the double-teams Washington constantly brought on Anthony Davis and later brought on Ryan Anderson. The bigs got caught in bad position on numerous occasions and found themselves throwing up Hail Mary passes to try and execute the offense instead of the team finding ways to work off the double-teams. With AD taken out of the equation early, New Orleans’ other role players, such as Norris Cole, Bryce Dejean-Jones and Dante Cunningham could not step up in their offensive game.

Turning Point: Jared Dudley’s third quarter shooting spree

The New Orleans Pelicans were only down three points to start the second half. However, that changed at the beginning of the third quarter. The Wizards went on a 14-0 run to start the second half that included some impressive shooting from Wizards’ wing Jared Dudley. Dudley started the second half with nine points off of 3-4 shooting from behind the three-point line in the first four minutes of the third frame. He was guarded on the defensive end by Anthony Davis, but the penetration by John Wall and the Wizards bigs’ presence inside forced Davis down to help, opening up the sharpshooter outside. While the Pelicans’ four minute cold streak hurt them, their inability to play proper defense on a lock-down shooter like Dudley really did them in.

Defining Moment: Dagger to seal the Triple-Double for John Wall

Midway through the fourth quarter, the Pelicans were nearly out of the game already. Down 16 with just over six minutes to go, New Orleans had just forced a miss from behind the arc. However, Marcin Gortat grabbed one of his five offensive rebounds in the game. He got it out to John Wall outside the arc, who buried the long-ball to stretch the Wizards lead to 19. That did it for the comeback hopes the Pelicans may have had. More so, it meant New Orleans gave up a triple-double to the opposing point guard in John Wall. In a game that already took the sails out of New Orleans overall, giving up a triple-double to the star on the other team has to sting.

Next: Debate: Should the Pelicans have made a trade?

That was……..quite a let down.

Alvin Gentry can not at all be happy with how the New Orleans Pelicans played. After fighting tooth and nail with Washington Wizards through the first 24 minutes, the Pelicans completely fell apart in the second half of play. They couldn’t get their offense going, scoring just 38 points in the second half. They couldn’t stop the Wizards ball movement, ending up in 12 three-pointers made for Washington. It was a train-wreck to end the winning streak for New Orleans.

It will not get any easier for the New Orleans Pelicans, as they will travel back home to play the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night. Tip is scheduled for 7:00 PM CST.

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