New Orleans Pelicans Awards: Pelicans finish season with blowout loss to Minnesota Timberwolves

The New Orleans Pelicans finished the 2015-2016 campaign with a dreadful blowout loss to the young Minnesota Timberwolves.

The New Orleans Pelicans finished their season with a horrific 144-109 loss to the young Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Pelicans finish this season 30-52 and will have the sixth best odds at the first pick in the NBA Draft. Minnesota completely took over the game, shooting 65.1% from the field on the night, while the Pelicans shot just 43.5% overall.

James Ennis finished the game as the Pelicans leading scorer with 30 points. Toney Douglas also had a strong shooting night with 22 points.

Karl-Anthony Towns commanded the ship for the Minnesota Timberwolves with 28 points, 14 rebounds and two blocks.

MVP: Omer Asik

Well this is surprising. To the surprise of many from his recent play, Omer Asik had a really strong game. A career night, in fact. Omer finished with 24 points on the night, a new career high for Asik. He also brought down 11 rebounds and a steal. While the Timberwolves’ speed ended up being the difference in this game, Asik’s ability to crash the offensive glass and get himself in position inside is something new we have not seen from him yet. He took the youthful Minnesota bigs to the block and on the offensive end, ended up being bigger and stronger. This is the kind of game fans want to see out of Omer no matter the result of the game. He was forceful. He was aggressive. He wanted the ball. That’s a positive sign to go into the offseason on.

LVP: Kendrick Perkins

It’s fun to laugh at Kendrick Perkins playing basketball and making mistakes. However tonight, it became even more painful. Perkins finished the game with six turnovers and shooting 2-7 from the field for six points. When Kendrick was signed, most knew he wasn’t going to be known for his play. He was seen as a leadership kind of player who has been deep into the playoffs before and even has a NBA Championship Ring. However, the injuries forced the Pelicans to use him on the floor. It ended poorly for New Orleans tonight. It’s tough to see a lot of reasons to keep him on the roster going forward.

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X-Factor: Where’s the defense?

The New Orleans Pelicans did not play much defense in tonight’s contest. The Minnesota Timberwolves finished the game with 144 points, including at least 32 points in all four quarters of the game. Minnesota shot 65.1% from the field for the game, including 46.4% from behind the three-point line. The Pelicans just looked completely out of gas on the defensive end and the Timberwolves looked completely into tonight’s contest. The young wolves took advantage and had a career game for their team. New Orleans will have to try and look to the offseason to improve what has been a dismal defensive team for the entire season.

Turning Point: Zach LaVine puts the hammer on the Pelicans

The New Orleans Pelicans didn’t play much defense tonight, and Wolves young guard Zach LaVine took full advantage. On the two-on-zero break, Minnesota forward Shabazz Muhammed saw LaVine streaking to the basket. He put the ball up pretty high for mortal humans, but that’s not too high for two-time NBA Slam Dunk Champion LaVine. He grabbed the ball one-handed out of the air and threw it down with authority to launch the crowd into a mass of cheers. With a massive lead and a highlight reel play, it was over for the Pelicans. It shows the difference in excitement for these franchises. Hopefully Anthony Davis can top him next year.

Defining Moment: Kendrick Perkins does the impossible

Remember how Kendrick Perkins was the least valuable player of the game? Well he still made the most memorable play of the entire season. With the third quarter winding down, the Pelicans offense once again found itself fumbling around confused. It ended with Jordan Hamilton passing to a wide open Kendrick Perkins open behind the three-point line with two seconds on the shot clock. Perk took a step and chucked up the long ball and it went in the basket. Unfortunately, the shot was reviewed and deemed a long two-pointer. Still, it was a bright light in a painful game to watch Perkins make a long range jumper.

Next: Are the Pelicans heading in the wrong direction?

That was………the end of a frustrating season.

Alvin Gentry will go into this offseason with a lot of built up frustration. His team had one more game to show the league how tough they could be. Instead, they let the Minnesota Timberwolves take over the game and turn it into their own highlight reel. That fumes an NBA Head Coach to the boiling point. There’s bound to be a lot of changes from this season brought to the team in next year’s campaign after this performance.

The New Orleans Pelicans will now head into the offseason to assess their team and prepare for the NBA Draft. The NBA Lottery is scheduled for May 17th.

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