New Orleans Pelicans get first win of Summer League over Sacramento Kings

The New Orleans Pelicans fought hard for their first win of the Las Vegas Summer League, as they beat the Sacramento Kings 70-66.

It wasn’t pretty, but the New Orleans Pelicans won their first basketball game since April 8th.

The Pelicans Summer League team defeated the Sacramento Kings 70-66 in the final game before the bracket-style tournament begins.

After trailing by seven at halftime, the Pelicans used a 27-11 run in the third quarter to spark a comeback victory, their first win in three games of summer league action.

Buddy Hield finished with 23 points on 10-23 shooting, including a massive 17-points on 7-11 shooting in the third quarter alone. However, it was everything else that made this his best performance of the NBA Summer League so far.

Hield also finished with seven rebounds, five assists and three steals. His defense also saw a massive improvement from the prior two games, as he held Kings rookie Malachi Richardson to 2-12 shooting on the night. His ability to keep up with Richardson’s speed without fouling forced Malachi into bad shots and great transition opportunities for the Pelicans.

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Was it a perfect performance for Hield? No. He still lost his man a few times on defense. He still had four turnovers. He still shot just 3-12 from behind the three-point line. He still had two of his shots blocked. He still put up shots that were not open and detrimental to his team’s success more often than originally hoped.

With all that in mind, his ability to find his rhythm and greatly improve his ability to get open shots against good defenders is still a positive. So is his vastly improved defense and his passing ability finally being showcased in the way fans had hoped. It was a solid performance from a rookie who has been bashed for his struggles so far this summer.

Oddly enough, this game went down as Chieck Diallo’s worst performance of summer league. Compared to the two opponent’s prior, the Kings had much better bigs to counter Diallo, with Willie Cauley-Stein and Skal Labrissiere. With the tougher matchups, Diallo’s numbers dipped from his earlier stints, which is understandable.

Diallo finished with five points, seven rebounds and five fouls. He did have one block and one turnover as well. It wasn’t a fantastic performance. He seemed out-muscled by Labrissiere all night. He struggled to dominate inside like he did against Utah and Los Angeles. This game showed more than anything Diallo needs to work on adding to his build if he looks to compete with the best the NBA has to offer.

There were two other New Orleans Pelicans Summer Leaguers who joined Hield in having their best games.

The first is NC State standout Anthony “Cat” Barber. Cat finished the game with 13 points on 5-11 shooting to go along with two rebounds. The biggest standout for Barber was his speed. His points mostly came from the halfcourt offense, where he blew right past his man to the rim for an easy layup multiple times in the game.

His defense, for the most part, was decent. He only had one steal on the game, but he did make it tough for the opposing guards to get to the rim. It wasn’t his strongest suit, but overall he had a good game that might get NBA teams to look his way.

The second is Larry Drew II. He finished with 11 points, five rebounds, four steals and five assists. His overall impact tonight looked much more like the point guard performances he had for the Pelicans Summer League team last season. He got the offense moving smoothly late in the game.

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However, the first half was the same as the past two games. He struggled greatly, as shown in his five turnovers and two fouls. His defense was okay, but he did have some problems with Kings guard Drew Stockton getting open and converting. Stockton finished the game with 12 points on 5-8 shooting. Overall, good game from Drew, but not fantastic.

After that, the “meh” performances continued from the New Orleans Pelicans.

David Lighty Jr saw the same kind of game as before. He made a few good shots that led to his four points and even played decent defense, grabbing four rebounds. He had a decent game. However, he still looked like the fourth best option on the floor. He was there to space the floor for Hield and Diallo and never seemed comfortable demanding the ball.

Liam McMorrow had an eventful game for sure. McMorrow did not have much positives on the box score, yet he did nearly have a huge negative. On one Cat Barber drive, he was fouled hard by Stockton. When Barber got up in frustration, McMorrow joined in and seemed all too eager to brawl with the surrounding Kings. Even with the courage to stand up for his teammates, he didn’t do much on the floor to help his team win the game.

Alex Olah played 21 minutes tonight, mostly because after the incident, Robert Pack stayed away from McMorrow. Olah did okay, yet still had problems. He did score six points on 3-7 shooting, which was a surprise from his offensive struggles in the first two games. However, he still fouled three times and gave up a plethora of offensive rebounds to Sacramento. He’s a big that struggles to box out, which is mightily scary for NBA teams.

Damien Inglis also had a decent performance in his 14 minutes on the floor. Inglis finished with five points, four rebounds and two steals. However, he also finished with two fouls and three turnovers. The biggest takeaway was how lost he was the entire game. As fellow Pelican Debrief Writer Charles LaRocca noted during the game, his confusion in simple plays is not something to take lightly.

There’s not much to take out of the other’s

K.T. Harrell, Vladimir Jankovic, Nick Minnerath, and Ryan Boatright all saw less than seven minutes on the floor. None of them had a positive impact, since they were on the floor when the Kings made their big run back into the game. Jameel McKay did not play in tonight’s game. Also, while checking the rest of the box score, something odd occurred.

According to the game’s official box score, DJ Kennedy is not on the roster and his spot was replaced by former Louisiana Tech standout Michale Kyser. Kyser played for five and a half minutes, but did not have much an impact on the game other than one rebound and a block. It will have to be seen if Kyser sees the floor more or less going into the bracket games.

Next: Last night's recap of Pelicans loss to Utah Jazz

The New Orleans Pelicans will have to wait until tomorrow’s action is finished before they find out their first opponent for the bracket tournament coming up soon. It will be good for the youngsters to get some rest and prepare for a long stretch of remaining games in the Las Vegas Summer League.