New Orleans Pelicans have late game woes, lose to Los Angeles Clippers 100-107
The New Orleans Pelicans are now three games back of the NBA playoffs and they have nobody to blame but themselves. They had plenty of chances to win today’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers, but some poor defense followed by even worse decision making on offense led to another loss that the Pelicans squandered away.
The worst part is that New Orleans was in this game for the entire day. They started off on fire from the field, and Anthony Davis was a monster. He didn’t miss a shot for the entire first half, and his lone miss for the entire game came, outside of garbage time, came on a contested layup in the third quarter. However, when it came to crunch time the Pelicans looked elsewhere for their offense. They looked away from their superstar and settled for shots that the Clippers were okay with giving up. They were doing exactly what the defense wanted, and that’s bad offense. New Orleans has received criticism all year for how they’ve handled late game situations, but today their decision making was the worst it’s been all season. They handed away a game they could have, and possibly should have, ended up winning and now their road to the playoffs has gotten even harder.
69. Final. 107. 77. 100
Norris Cole played well for much of the game. He did what he was signed to do and that’s play decentish defense and manage the game. He even hit a couple of big shots, but he’s the guy running the offense late in the game and he didn’t get the ball where it needed to be. He also took a couple of bad late game shots such as a corner 3-pointer that he dribbled on instead of a simple catch and shoot.. PG. New Orleans Pelicans. NORRIS COLE. C-
B-. Quincy Pondexter played a pure 3 and D role today and he wasn’t too bad at it either. Of his 10 shots, nine of them came from 3-point range, and he made four of his attempts from there. Outside of that he played some okay perimeter defense. Actually, he might have been the only player that played decent perimeter defense.. SG/SF. New Orleans Pelicans. QUINCY PONDEXTER
D-. It’s not Dante Cunninngham’s fault that the Pelicans kept giving him the ball. It’s not his fault that those shots were open, because the Clippers were okay with letting him beat them, and it’s not his fault for taking open shots. He still shot horribly and played bleh defense.. SF/PF. New Orleans Pelicans. DANTE CUNNINGHAM
ANTHONY DAVIS. A. Before the game was out of reach, Anthony Davis had only missed one shot the entire game. He was dominant on offense and it really looked like nobody could stop him. Yet the offense didn’t run through him late in the game. Maybe he wasn’t playing aggressive enough? I’m not sure, but that doesn’t really excuse the Pelicans for having late game possessions where he didn’t even touch the ball.. PF/C. New Orleans Pelicans
C. New Orleans Pelicans. ALEXIS AJINCA. C. Alexi Ajinca needed 11 shots to get his 11 points and that’s not very good, but he did pull down 10 rebounds. The Pelicans take what they can get from him and tonight it was okay. Not great, not bad, just okay.
B-. Eric Gordon didn’t get the start tonight, because apparently he was late to a team meeting. That said he still played starter level minutes and was fantastic on the offensive side of the ball. He scored 23 points and drilled five 3-pointers. However, on defense JJ Redick got free way too often and that’s a guy Gordon should have been stuck to like glue.. SG. New Orleans Pelicans. ERIC GORDON
D+. Jimmer Fredette only played 12 minute and he was pretty not good during those 12 minutes. He only made one shot and it never felt like he was doing much to help anybody out. It’s pretty clear he can’t create for others, and should be getting more off ball sets, but if he’s not shooting well then that’s a problem.. PG/SG. New Orleans Pelicans. JIMMER FREDETTE
SF. New Orleans Pelicans. LUKE BABBITT. C. Luke Babbit played 11 minutes, but it was really sporadic and he only seemed to enter to give other players some rest. When he was out there he attempted a couple of 3-pointers and made two baskets.
Oh Jeff Withey…he went from a promising back up big man this season to the end of the bench and it was pretty obvious why tonight. He struggled on the defensive end and was completely forgettable on the offensive end. He did pull down five rebounds, but that’s about the only positive from his day.. C. New Orleans Pelicans. JEFF WITHEY. D+