New Orleans Pelicans Awards: Pelicans soar past Brooklyn Nets for third win in four games

The New Orleans Pelicans are continuing to finish the season strong, soaring past the Brooklyn Nets for their third win in four games.

While there’s really not much to play for in some fans eyes, the New Orleans Pelicans roster continues to fight hard and work well together, finding another victory in Brooklyn against the Nets 106-87.

While the Pelicans have been a disappointment this season, they were able to get their offense working effectively against one of the worst teams in the league record wise. New Orleans shot 55.3% from the field and made eight three-pointers on the night. The New Orleans defense held the Nets to 38.8% shooting from the field. Those two categories combined helped propel the Pelicans to a victory in their first game of the final month of the season.

Tim Frazier recorded his second double-double of his career with 19 points and 13 assists. Luke Babbitt led the Pelicans in scoring with 21 points to go with four assists.

Sean Kilpatrick was the leading scorer for the Brooklyn Nets with 15 points to go with three rebounds.

MVP: Tim Frazier

Tim Frazier really stole the spotlight in a game that desperately needed one. He finished the night with a double-double off the bench with 19 points, 13 assists and three steals. What’s even more surprising is his ability to move the ball so effectively without turning the ball over. His 13 assists look so much better when he turns the ball over zero times. He moved the ball with ease. On one play, he came off of a screen out of the corner of the half-court offense. He then used a little spin to pass the ball through the middle of the defense to Dante Cunningham on the opposite side block, where he had an open opportunity at a layup. Dante got an offensive foul, but the ability to crisply pass the ball without giving it away to the other team is a skill that will get Frazier a job in this league for sure. The New Orleans Pelicans have to consider him as a real answer at the backup point guard role with his play late in this season.

LVP: Toney Douglas

It would be easy to go with Omer Asik here, so instead let’s talk about how “meh” a game Toney Douglas had. For a starting point guard, he did not just get completely shown up by Frazier, but looked pedestrian against Nets point Shane Larkin. Douglas’ main strength is his scoring, yet finished this game with a measly two points on 1-6 shooting with four assists and four rebounds in 27 minutes. It’s not great, and he let his matchup finish the game with nine assists and two steals on Douglas’ two turnovers. There are games where Douglas’ aggression and willingness to attack the basket helps this team, yet there are games like this as well where it only haunts this team. There was not a lot of offensive threats on the floor with Douglas, so his aggression turned into the defense locking him down and him forcing bad shots. Not a great contest for Toney.

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X-Factor: Speed and Thievery

The New Orleans Pelicans used a combo of steals and transition buckets to get an upper hand in this game. The Pelicans finished the game with 11 steals on 20 Nets turnovers that turned into 29 fastbreak points for New Orleans. When you’re struggling on offense as a team, it’s always a good strategy to turn strong defense into effective offense. That was the main objective for New Orleans against a Brooklyn team that’s had struggles playing games without a massive amount of turnovers. The Pelicans took full advantage and used their youth and fire to dominate this department of the game. And in the end, this was the major reason New Orleans walked out of Brooklyn with a well earned victory.

Turning Point: Offense catches fire and lockdown fourth quarter defense ensues

This game did not get completely out of hand until the fourth quarter. The Pelicans started the fourth quarter up 11 and needed one more run to get themselves the space they needed for the victory. They got that with a huge run in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter. New Orleans made seven of their first eight shots of the final frame, while holding the Nets to seven points in that stretch. This run stretched the lead to 17 and really took the sails out of any comeback attempt the Nets had planned for this game. The unit of Frazier, Hamilton, Ennis, Babbitt and Perkins seems like an odd unit, but for that four minute stretch, they gelled well enough together to end the contest right then and there.

Defining Moment: Scoreless in the first 5:36

Sure, the game went in the New Orleans Pelicans favor tonight. However, if you’re asking about what was the defining moment of this game, it would be the first five and a half minutes of the contest. Why? Because the Pelicans scored a whopping zero points in that stretch. The play was uglier than imaginable. They missed seven straight shots and turned the ball over five times to start the game before a Luke Babbitt floater finally got New Orleans on the board. During those five and a half minutes, the Nets scored a whopping seven points of their own. The play from both teams was pretty revolting and perfectly fit a 1:00 PM EST contest between two bottom dwelling teams.

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That was………a convincing win.

Alvin Gentry has to be happy with how his team played tonight. They played well together, shot the ball pretty darn well and took over the game in the final frame when they needed to. This team has really struggled to close games all season, so to see them lock down at the end and close like a winning team is a positive sign going forward. Even if most of these guys won’t be on the team next year, Gentry wants a winning mentality to be established for the future. This game will be progress towards that.

The New Orleans Pelicans will look to keep up the April winning streak as they travel to Philadelphia to play the 76ers Tuesday.Tip is scheduled for 6:00 PM CST.

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