Player Grades: New Orleans Pelicans win second game with Jrue Holiday, beat Charlotte Hornets at home
Losing 10 of 12 games is a bad sign for any season, but Jrue Holiday inspired hope tonight, leading the New Orleans Pelicans to a second straight win.
The return of Pelicans star Jrue Holiday sparked much needed optimism among the New Orleans Pelicans fanbase. New Orleans would capitalize off of that momentum tonight.
Following up on their best win of the season last night, New Orleans responded with resilient effort tonight. Both teams started off the game shooting poorly, but Charlotte would hold a steady lead throughout due to the Pelicans inability to shoot from behind the arc. While the Pelicans were struggling from deep, the Hornets would find the touch from some hot shooting from Marco Bellinelli (and to a lesser degree Frank Kaminsky).
New Orleans came into the 4th quarter trailing by 11 points, but ironically the three point shot would bring them back into the game. Particularly fiery was Langston Galloway, who nailed three straight from distance, and got fouled a fourth attempt. His hot shooting allowed New Orleans to gain ground while also helping them withstand the Bellinelli buzzsaw.
The Pelicans late-game execution has been an issue for them all season, but tonight, they delivered. New Orleans trailed by deficits of three points and two points with less than 2:00 minutes remaining, yet they responded well enough to bring the game into overtime. Once the game got to overtime, the greatness of Anthony Davis pulled them through. Davis scored 8 in overtime to close the door on Charlotte.
Below are grades from tonights back and forth affair.
The boxscore does not accurately capture how <a rel=. PG . New Orleans Pelicans. TIM FRAZIER . B-
New Orleans Pelicans. E'TWAUN MOORE. D. <a rel=. SG
New Orleans Pelicans. DANTE CUNNINGHAM . C. <a rel=. F
PF. New Orleans Pelicans. ANTHONY DAVIS . A+. Anthony Davis with another 38-point, 16-rebound, 3-block outing. The most ridiculous thing about his start to the season is that I have come to expect dominance like this. I am more surprised if he doesn’t reach these numbers than when he does, and that’s insane. Tonight, the Hornets had no answer for him. He was too quick for any of the Charlotte bigs to contend with him. When the Hornets countered with the smaller <a rel=
<a rel=. C . New Orleans Pelicans. OMER ASIK . D+
Jrue Holiday has quickly reminded Pelicans fans why they were so eager to see him return. For the second game in the row, Holiday came off the bench and made a huge difference. The Pelicans offense looks like a completely different one when he’s running the show. Holiday drew a lot of attention with his penetration tonight, and besides an overtime charge, he usually made the correct decision. His decisiveness has made a big difference. Holiday is alway under control with the basketball, and that allows him to find weaknesses in the defense and exploit them. 2-0 so far since his return and if him and Davis stay healthy, things get interesting for the Pelicans.. PG. New Orleans Pelicans. JRUE HOLIDAY . A
Langston Galloway was the X-factor tonight. Galloway found the hot hand in the 4th quarter and brought the Pelicans back from the jaws of defeat. Galloway is the definition of a microwave shooter. As frustrating as it is to watch some nights, it can equally be jaw-dropping. Tonight, fortunately for the Pelicans, it was the latter. Galloway is far from consistent though, and will have his “WTF” moments. For instance, Gentry ran a great play out of a timeout in the fourth quarter to get Galloway open on a curl at the free throw line. He air=balled the sitter…but you take the good and the bad on this offense and hope there’s more good than bad.. G. New Orleans Pelicans. LANGSTON GALLOWAY . A
F. Outside of a couple of made shots, <a rel=. F. New Orleans Pelicans. TERRENCE JONES
C-. <a rel=. F. New Orleans Pelicans. SOLOMON HILL
F. <a rel=. G. New Orleans Pelicans. BUDDY HIELD
Next: Dispatch from Jrue Holiday's return at the Smoothie King Center