New Orleans Pelicans Awards: Pelicans’ light up the scoreboard in win against Sacramento Kings

The New Orleans Pelicans snapped their four game losing streak with an offensive onslaught to defeat sweep the season series against the Sacramento Kings.

The New Orleans Pelicans found their first win in their past five contests with a confident victory against the Kings in Sacramento 123-108.

The first half didn’t see much defense from either team, however the Pelicans took more of an advantage of the sub-par defense, finishing the first half with 74 points on 67% shooting from the field. The Kings mounted a few mini-comeback attempts in the second half, however the New Orleans Pelicans kept shooting well enough to fend off Sacramento for the victory.

Anthony Davis had another superb game with 27 points, 14 rebounds and two blocks. Ryan Anderson had a field day shooting the basketball with 21 points in the first half on 8-11 shooting. He finished the contest with 29 points on 11-21 shooting along with five three-pointers.

DeMarcus Cousins finished strong for Sacramento with 20 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Darren Collison led the Kings in scoring with 23 points and four assists.

MVP: Anthony Davis

Anthony Davis continues to be a monster against the Sacramento Kings this season. In his three games against the Sacramento Kings this season, Anthony Davis has scored at least 24 points and grabbed at least 10 rebounds in each game. Tonight was the same story. The Kings don’t have anyone who can match Davis’ size and athleticism at the forward position. Sacramento tried to put everyone on their roster with the capabilities to slow him down. It made no difference. When Anthony is confident and cool against an inferior team, it’s scary what he can do with the basketball. The Kings announcers put his performance tonight as “unstoppable”. Can’t say there’s anything to disagree with there.

LVP: Rudy Gay

This is 99% of the time where a Pelican player that did not play up to expectations and underwhelmed would end up. However, there was not a single player on the Pelicans who played poorly tonight. Therefore, Sacramento Kings small forward Rudy Gay ends up here. Gay should’ve had a really strong offensive games with how poor the New Orleans Pelicans’ wing defense has been all year, yet he struggled mightily. Gay finished with 12 points on 4-11 shooting with five rebounds and three assists. His two fouls and two turnovers hurt his team in the long haul and for a guy considered the second most talented player on the Kings roster tonight, he didn’t play up to that potential. In a game where everyone on both teams seemed to have it going, Gay was the odd duck of the contest. 

More from Pelican Debrief

• How will the Pelicans round out rotation without Trey Murphy III
• Why you can’t blame Brandon Ingram for all Team USA’s failures
• Ranking 10 worst starters of the Anthony Davis era
• New Orleans Pelicans avoid potential disaster with latest injury reports
• 4 Most underrated players on New Orleans Pelicans current roster

X-Factor: The entire Pelicans roster

While Ryan Anderson stole the sharpshooting role of the night, all the Pelicans players who played meaningful minutes in this contest had strong games. Nine of the 11 players who played in this game finished with at least 2 buckets in the game, with five of those players finishing with at least 10 points. This included a strong night from the newest Pelican in Tim Frazier, who finished his first game on the team with a career high 14 points, nine assists and zero turnovers in 27 minutes of play. This is just one day after Frazier was signed to a 10-day contract on the New Orleans Pelicans. With the mass amount of injuries the Pelicans have had to deal with all season, a night where every player in the game plays as well as they did is a fantastic distraction from a disappointing campaign.

Turning Point: Ryan Anderson losses his mind in second quarter

This game was a back-and-forth barn-burner until the second quarter. With the New Orleans Pelicans up just 44-41 with 7:24 left in the half, Anderson and the rest of the Pelicans put on an offensive onslaught. The team scored 30 points in the final 7:24 of the period, with Ryan Anderson scoring 16 of those points on his own. The Pelicans even made it rain from behind the arc during the stretch, as the team made all four of their three-point attempts in the span of seven and a half minutes. New Orleans didn’t have major issues scoring in their latest losses, but putting on an explosion like they did in the second quarter tonight certainly helps in any contest.

Defining Moment: Tim Frazier sets a new career high

Tim Frazier’s first game as a Pelican went pretty darn well. Late in the contest, Frazier passed to Ryan Anderson, who was nearly tripled-teamed in the corner with just five seconds on the shot clock. He quickly passed the ball back to Frazier at the top of the key near half-court. Tim Frazier then took the dribble into the paint and had to adjust his shot in air due to the defender getting a hand up. The layup bounced on the rim off the backboard and into the basket. That was Frazier’s 14th point of the game and set a new career high for his NBA career. That bested Frazier’s his old record of 13 points he achieved in two different contests on both the Philadelphia 76ers in February of 2015 and the Portland Trail-Blazers in their last regular season game of the 2014-2015 season.

Next: Pelicans sign Tim Frazier to 10-day contract

That was……..a breathe of fresh air!

Alvin Gentry has to be happy that his team was finally able to hold onto a victory. It wasn’t the prettiest win with their play in the second half, but the New Orleans Pelicans were able to get the job done for the first time in their past five contests. The team played together on offense and the shots fell. Everything was clicking. Having that kind of production on the road for a team that had just seven road wins on the year prior to tonight is certainly a breathe of fresh air.

The New Orleans Pelicans will look win their second game in a row Friday night as they travel back home to play the Portland Trail-Blazers. Tip is scheduled for 7:00 PM CST.