The New Orleans Pelicans never found any rhythm in their first game of the NBA Las Vegas Summer League, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers 85-65.
New Orleans Pelicans’ rookie Buddy Hield did not get off to the best start to his NBA career.
For that matter, neither did any of the players on the Pelicans Summer League roster.
The New Orleans Pelicans lost their opening game of the Las Vegas NBA Summer League to the Los Angeles Lakers in blowout fashion, 85-65.
New Orleans as a team shot 32.9% from the field in the game and 15% from behind the three-point line, while letting the Lakers shoot 49.2% overall.
Buddy Hield had the most points for the Pelicans with 13, but shot a dismal 5-20 from the field and 1-8 from behind the three-point line. Sure, it’s only the first game. No reason to panic too much. Still, that kind of shooting night in addition to four turnovers is not the brightest mark. His aggression was good from the start, yet it’s still a question if he can get more control of it at this level.
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Most of the other players on New Orleans’ roster didn’t fair any better. Larry Drew II finished with just five points, two assists and two turnovers in over 17 and a half minutes. The other starting players in Nick Minnerath and David Lighty Jr. had sub-par games overall.
Minnerath had four points and four rebounds in 12 and a half minutes. While he started, he saw one of the three lowest amount of playing times on the roster. Not a great sign.
Lighty Jr. had six points and two steals, but also had four fouls and two turnovers. He never seemed to find any comfort against the Lakers long wings, especially Brandon Ingram.
The only player to have a decent performance out of the starters was second-round draft pick Cheick Diallo. Diallo finished the game with 11 points on 5-10 shooting, seven rebounds and three blocks in 27 minutes. Sure, those numbers aren’t massive, however he had the biggest impact on the game and the best performance of the entire roster.
For a second round pick, that’s a good sign. Unfortunately he still needs to get stronger on the rebounds and his best highlights of the game did come in garbage time.
The bench players who did the most in their time on the floor were Anthony Barber, Damien Inglis, Jameel McKay and Ryan Boatright.
Barber finished 3-10 from the field for eight points to add to his two rebounds and two assists. It wasn’t a great performance from him.
Inglis actually had a solid impact aside from scoring with six rebounds, two steals and an assist. He lacked aggression with the ball, but made an impact in other areas.
McKay had the best shooting percentage off the bench, making 40% of his shots and chalking up six rebounds. Still, he didn’t leave a massive mark on the game with just four points.
Boatright was tied for the most points off the bench with Cat Barber at eight. He was also the only bench player to make a three-pointer. Still, he went 2-8 from the field and struggled on defense.
Liam McMorrow chalked up three fouls in his 15 minutes of play, while K.T. Harrell only saw six minutes and nine seconds on the floor, the lowest of the 10 guys who played in tonight’s game.
The Lakers have a strong set of young players on their Summer League Roster, especially at the guard spots. Los Angeles’ star youngsters D’Angelo Russell and Brandon Ingram made life tough for the Pelicans with solid performances. Russell was the star of the game with 20 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. Ingram debuted well at 12 points on 5-9 shooting, to go with four rebounds.
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This is still just the first game of the New Orleans Pelicans Summer League schedule. There’s a lot of time for the youngsters to see the floor and improve on this disappointing performance. The next game is scheduled for Sunday, July 10th at 7 P.M. CST against the Utah Jazz.