The New Orleans Pelicans got a bit healthier but still can’t get a win.
With Tyreke Evans and Norris Cole returning to action on Tuesday night the New Orleans Pelicans had hopes of starting to get back on the right track and headed towards the playoffs. After Marc Gasol torched them for 38 points, 13 rebounds and six assists they are still trying to figure out how to get there.
Evans was good in his season debut with 20 points, 10 assists, five rebounds and just one turnover and Anthony Davis added 17 points, 14 rebounds and nine blocks but it wasn’t enough as New Orleans crumbled after a strong first quarter and lost once again by a significant margin.
Other observations:
- The Pelicans have maybe three good players right now which makes rotations hard. New Orleans collapses with out Anthony Davis on the floor and while Tyreke Evans should help he doesn’t fix everything. That leads to bizarre combinations like Ish Smith, Norris Cole and Eric Gordon sharing the floor as Gentry tries to experiment and find what works. With that in mind expect things to get worse before they get better.
- It won’t be long before Omer Asik starts getting DNP-CD’s. He stinks and it is really hard to figure out how to make his offensive game playable enough to let his defense and rebounding help the team.
- The Anderson/Davis defensive numbers are going to get uglier soon as teams are once again starting to attack Anderson. Davis is doing a better job this year of protecting the rim in those situations but teams can pull him away and force Anderson to be that guy which he cannot do.
- Anthony Davis entered the night averaging 34.6 minutes per game and he played 41. It is the fifth time in the last six games Davis has played 39 minutes or more. That can’t continue. New Orleans needs to find a third big man they can play in some of those minutes so Davis doesn’t wear down before February.
The Pelicans get back at it on Wednesday when they take on the Houston Rockets.