Final Thoughts: New Orleans Pelicans lose Atlanta Hawks in disappointing fashion

The New Orleans Pelicans missed a great chance to head into the road trip with a win last night. They suffered a tough home loss to the Atlanta Hawks to fall to 13-23.

After falling short on the road to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night, the New Orleans Pelicans returned home Thursday to play the Atlanta Hawks. However, the game immediately became overshadowed by the stunning news of Kyle Korver being traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The news of the trade came out about 20 minutes before tip-off. So sudden, in fact, that Kyle Korver was warming up with the team 10 minutes before the game officially began.

From the Pelicans side of things, it looked like a very winnable game on paper. The team was coming off of two days’ rest, while the Hawks were on the second night of a back to back. Being at home, the Pelicans had the schedule advantage– add in the fact that Atlanta would be missing their only reliable three-point threat (Korver), and the arrow pointed in favor of the Pelicans. These are the type of games that must be won if a team wants to be taken serious as a playoff contender.

Of course, the Pelicans lost.

Below are the major reasons that New Orleans squandered what should have been an easy win in truth.

Must Read: Anthony Davis fourth in initial All-Star results

Anthony Davis continues to look human

For the second game in a row, Anthony Davis struggled mightily from the field. Some of it was the Hawks playing good defense, but a lot of the time, Davis just couldn’t hit a jumper.

It’s fair to wonder if carrying such a heavy burden is finally wearing on him. It is not uncommon for players to hit a wall before the All-Star break, and we could be seeing that with Davis. His jumper efficiency has been waning for a couple weeks now, and for a team that relies so much on him offensively, that’s a bad sign.

Against the Hawks, it appeared he lost confidence in the jumper. With the Pelicans trailing in the 4th quarter, Tim Hardaway Jr. drew a charge on Anthony Davis after the superstar passed up an open three. Davis did put up 12 points in the 4th quarter to rally the Pelicans, but it was poor performance overall for a player of his quality. When evaluating this loss, it has to fall on AD first and foremost; as he always says, it starts and ends with him.

The Pelicans Can’t Take Advantage of Hot Shooting 

For the second game in a row, the Pelicans lit it up from three-point range. They went 15/35 from three point range, good for 42 percent.  They consistently found open looks on the perimeter and were able to knock down their shots; usually that would translate into a victory, but the Pelicans were horrendous inside the paint.

In fact, New Orleans shot a better percentage from behind the arc (42 percent) than from the floor overall (36 percent). The Hawks’ bigs clogged the paint all game, giving the Pelicans no easy shots at the rim. Additionally, the guards struggled to deal with the pressure from the Hawks’ starting backcourt duo of Thabo Sefolosha and Dennis Schroeder.

Buddy Hield’s crunch-time minutes were a disaster

For the second game in a row, Buddy Hield got crunch-time minutes. And for the second game in a row, it did not pay off. Hield was horrendously bad against the Hawks in the 4th quarter.

Related Story: Player of the Week breakdown: Buddy Hield

Offensively, he continually tried to blow by Thabo Sefolosha to no avail. His shooting touch was there, and his off-ball work offensively was very good, but he struggled mightily with the ball in his hands, as evidenced by a number of reckless forays to the rim.

Defensively, he was a turnstile. Too often, Hield would get beaten by his man, forcing the defense to collapse. This is what actually happened on the tie-breaking three by Dennis Schroeder: Hield missed a wild layup attempt with the game tied at 88. He then failed to get back quick enough on defense, leaving his man wide-open in the corner. Sefolosha (Hield’s man) didn’t take the open shot, but this sent the Pelicans’ defense into scramble mode.

Notice how Hield being late to get back causes the entire defensive rotation to be off. Hield tracks back on Thabo Sefolsha incorrectly and uncontrollably. This forces Dante Cunningham to step up with Hield out of the play, which in turn forces Jrue Holiday to rotate toward Millsap. Of course, this leaves Dennis Schroeder open for a go-ahead three.

But wait, there’s more!

Here, Hield gets rejected by Dwight Howard, even after slickly getting past Schroeder. He’s got to be smarter around the rim. That’s the next step for him, as he has yet to adjust to the length of NBA defenders. Against the Hawks, Hield did not make a strong case for more 4th quarter minutes.

Both Teams Looked Bad

The Pelicans and the Hawks struggled to make shots, and the game was quite ugly at times. The Pelicans had numerous opportunities to pull away, but could not due to poor play from the bench (looking at you, Tyreke Evans).

New Orleans was never able to land the knockout punch on Atlanta. They allowed the poor-shooting Hawks to stay in the game due to poor shot selection and a cold night by Anthony Davis.

When the game came down to the closing moments, the Pelicans were completely out-executed on both ends. The Hawks went through their sets brilliantly, while the Pels’ offense typically went deep into the shot clock. The Hawks late-game execution was the difference.

Next: Player Grades from the home loss to the Hawks

Whats Next?

The New Orleans Pelican heads to Boston on Saturday for the start of the longest road trip of their season. This trip is a huge test for the Pelicans. Afterwards, we will have a better idea of the direction in which this team is headed. The team missed a golden opportunity last night to head into the trip with some momentum.