Player Grades: New Orleans Pelicans Secure Holiday Victory vs Heat

JRUE HOLIDAY. A. Jrue Holiday finally beat the Heat. It was revealed in the New Orleans Pelicans post game interview that Holiday was previously 0-18 against Miami. Holiday broke that steak in exciting fashion tonight. Jrue finished with 22 points and six assists. Jrue came up big for the Pelicans down the stretch, scoring seven points in the quarter and dishing out three assists. Tonight is exactly the kind of night Jrue should be having against bad opponents. The Pels need him to score, and tonight he did so efficiently and effectively. Holiday’s play on the offensive side of the ball will often dictate the outcome for the New Orleans Pelicans.. PG. New Orleans Pelicans

BUDDY HIELD. F. Buddy Hield was not good tonight. For the second game in a row, Hield struggled to make shots. He was 1-8 tonight and 1-4 from behind the arc. Hield only played 18 minutes and despite his recent struggles, it is best that he stays in the starting lineup. He missed makeable shots from three, although he looked noticeably overmatched when driving to the rim against Hassan Whiteside (many guards are, to be fair). The major complaint here with Buddy is his lack of willingness to exploit a mismatch, if a big is guarding him. Tonight, he had Whiteside guarding him on the perimeter. Instead of trying to take Whiteside off the dribble, he passed it to Solomon Hill for a top of the key contested three pointer.. SG. New Orleans Pelicans

C. Dante Cunningham the basketball player = solid role player. Dante Cunningham the starting small forward = sub optimal. Cunningham was very average tonight. His three point shot actually might be a serious thing, though. Even his misses look good, but everything on else in his offensive seems to have gotten worse. Cunningham only had five points tonight on 2-8 shooting, but his work on the defensive end was very sound. He made things very difficult for Justice Winslow, forcing him into mid-range jumpers and denying him from getting to the rim.. F. New Orleans Pelicans. DANTE CUNNINGHAM

A+. Anthony Davis posted a ridiculous stat line. That’s pretty much a given these days. Whats not a given though is the Pelicans winning, and more importantly Davis thriving down the stretch. This game however, AD thrived in another way. He didn’t fill up the scoreboard in the 4th quarter. He dominated the offensive glass. Davis had four offensive rebounds in the 4th quarter, two of which led to five total points. The game was won by four. For the game, Davis finished with seven offensive rebounds and a career high 22 total rebounds. Davis’ work on the glass was essential in the Pelicans squeaking out a win. It was interesting to see if he can continue to crash the offensive glass so relentlessly. That’s been something uncommon for the Pelicans and performances like tonight make fans wonder if its something New Orleans should consider doing more of . Davis final line of 28 points ,22 boards and four blocks feels a lot better in a win.. PF/C. New Orleans Pelicans. ANTHONY DAVIS

D. Alexis Ajinca was pretty much irrelevant tonight. He wasn’t glaringly bad, but in his 18 minutes, he did nothing to impact the game. Outside of his basket to start to game, its hard to recall Ajinca doing much else. Apparently he did though, with four points, five rebounds, two blocks performance. That is mediocre at best and its clear by his minutes that Ajinca is only a starter by name.. C. New Orleans Pelicans. ALEXIS AJINCA

B. After seeing very few minutes the last two games, Langston Galloway saw 29 tonight. In those 29 minutes, he definitely made the case that he deserves more playing time. Galloway started the game 1-8 and it looked like fans were destined to see the snowball chucking Galloway. Credit to Alvin Gentry though for sticking with Galloway in the 4th quarter. Galloway rewarded Gentry’s faith by nailing two huge threes in the final period. Langston is a such a hot and cold shooter that it has been tough to rely on him, but tonight he came through when it mattered.. G. New Orleans Pelicans. LANGSTON GALLOWAY

D. Solomon Hill was relegated to the bench in favor of Dante Cunningham tonight. Although Cunningham did not do much to stake his claim for the spot, neither did Hill. Solomon Hill finished 1-6 on the game. Hill’s defense has been good, but its hard to imagine that this is the player the Pelicans envisioned they were getting, when they signed him. The Miami Heat frankly disregarded Hill on offense tonight, constantly helping off of him and limiting his effectiveness. The bench unit as a whole was awful and Hill inability to provide spacing certainly is a cause of that.. F. New Orleans Pelicans. SOLOMON HILL

C. E’Twaun Moore was awesome defensively tonight. He made two outstanding individual plays, twice blocking James Jones’ attempts to post him up. Offensively, Moore still struggled to fit in. Moore is most effective in this offense being used as an off-ball catch and shoot threat. But he’s missing good looks or forcing up contested fade-aways. Moore was not horrible to watch tonight and he came up with a huge three in the 4th quarter to keep the Pelicans in the game. Here’s to rooting for moore of that.. G/SF. New Orleans Pelicans. E'TWAUN MOORE

C-. Tyreke Evans finished with seven points on 1-7 shooting in his 14 minutes. Evans displayed some vintage Reke tendencies, both good and bad. His ball handling and ability to get to the rim is still very good. However, his inability to finish against length was once again a problem. Evans constantly got to his spots, using his strength and ball handling to get to the rim. But once he got there, he forced up wild attempts. He also displayed some ISO Reke tendencies as well. None of it was alarming though and it’s clear watching Tyreke that he’s not 100 percent healthy. We’ll give him a pass for now.. G/F. New Orleans Pelicans. TYREKE EVANS

Tim Frazier came in for Jrue Holiday’s foul trouble and it went as poorly as it could have. In fact, all nine of Tim Frazier’s minutes were in the first half, as he was the odd man out of the rotation tonight. It makes sense though, as the need for creators is less apparent, with Tyreke back in the fold.. G. New Orleans Pelicans. TIM FRAZIER. INC