In San Antonio for the second night of a particularly brutal back-to-back, the New Orleans Pelicans fall to 0-3 to start the season.
It went about as well as everyone expected.
When the 2016-17 NBA schedule was released, many New Orleans Pelicans fans groaned at seeing games two and three. Those two games saw the Golden State Warriors in the Smoothie King Center one night and the San Antonio Spurs at the AT&T Center the next. It is a brutal stretch for any team that seemed especially cruel considering the Pelicans won 30 games the previous year. No one expected this to go well for New Orleans, and that is exactly what ended up happening.
It didn't count, but Jonathon Simmons got 🆙 for this putback slam...👀 https://t.co/P80nZujdMp
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) October 30, 2016
The first half saw a few bright spots. The play of Solomon Hill and E’Twaun Moore seemed to improve. There were spurts of good defense and good offensive spacing (although the Pelicans have yet to find their shooting). However, Spurs guard Patty Mills hit a three pointer at the buzzer to close out the first half, and that set the tone for the second. The Spurs quickly and easily began to pull away in the third quarter, with the game well out of reach going into the fourth. By the halfway point of the fourth, the only thing Pelicans fans had to watch was rookies Buddy Hield and Chieck Diallo getting NBA reps.
The Pelicans will get two days’ rest before catching a break in the form of the Milwaukee Bucks at home on November 1st. In the meantime, here are the Pelicans player grades for a game fans would like to forget sooner rather than later.
Next: Is Panic Justified for the New Orleans Pelicans?
Other Notes:
- Turnovers. The game was close out the gate, but a series of key turnovers let the Spurs get ahead late in the first quarter, and they never looked back. While New Orleans and San Antonio ended with 10 turnovers each (and the Pelicans grabbing 19 points off turnovers to the Spurs’ eight), these early turnovers set the tone for the game early.
- The Pelicans’ three-point woes continued, this time going 4-22 from behind the arc. Given the Gentry offense and the career shooting records of the entire team, the abysmal shooting seems unsustainable. Still, New Orleans wont’ win too many games shooting like this.