New Orleans Pelicans beat Cavs, secure second straight win

The New Orleans Pelicans have won two straight! Defensively there were still some breakdowns but offensively the Pelicans played close to a complete full game of basketball in a 123-101 victory.

What we liked:

The ball movement……again. Not many people would have expected the Pelicans to show ELITE glimpses of ball movement. Without Rajon Rondo, it seemed almost impossible.

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From nearly start to finish New Orleans moved the ball, were crisp offensively and executed most sets to perfection.

What we didn’t like:

Too many defensive breakdowns against a good team will burn you. Fortunately, New Orleans played excellent on offense and the Cavaliers just aren’t playing good basketball currently.

Cleveland had a huge 3rd quarter in which they attempted at least eight open three-point shots, making seven of them. NOLA eventually tightened back up in a game where they did have some impressive defensive sequences, you still would rather them clean that up.

When it was over:

With the Pelicans up 108-91 and 6:56 left, the Cavaliers removed all of their starters. In what seemed like out of nowhere, the Pelicans found themselves heading towards their first “blowout” victory of the season.

Takeaways:

1. The Pelicans showed the potential they possess.

They shared the ball, made open shots, played team defense, and guys not named Cousins or Davis had huge games.

E’Twuan Moore was in rhythm from the beginning finishing with 24 points (4-5 from 3). Jrue Holiday looked possessed and outright pissed off as he scored 29 points and finished with 7 assists. It was the first game everything from his jump shot to his penetration and playmaking were all clicking at once. Who would have thought AD finishing with 30 points and 14 rebounds, and Boogie recording a triple-double  (29pts 12reb, 10asts) wouldn’t be the most noteworthy performances of the night.

2. Anthony Davis’ return

In his first game back from injury the big man didn’t look very rusty. Okay, he did miss a few dunks, but overall he seemed to be getting himself back in the flow of the game. He didn’t look as fluid moving outside of the paint on defense, and NOLA seemed to not really have him do a lot of moving on offense but it didn’t matter. He chose his spots coming up the floor, had another dominating rebound performance, and forced five (counted) total turnovers to go with 30 points.

Not bad AD, now stay healthy!

3. They showed another way to be resilient.

We’ve seen them play well without AD and we’ve seen them overcome big leads on the road. What we hadn’t seen is them re-establish a big lead after letting a team come back. For the first time all year they were able to do that.

The Pelicans have often shown the ability to let teams play their way back into games. Games against Memphis, Golden State, and the Los Angeles all saw NOLA go stale on both sides and never restore a dominant momentum.

Tonight was different, after being up by as many as 15 in the second quarter, the Cavs tied the game with 5:22 left in the 3rd quarter. Cleveland never got closer than three the rest of the game. New Orleans built a small lead by the end of the 3rd, maintained it, and once LeBron was out built a double-digit one to close the game. It was nice to see NOLA finish off a team, especially one driven by LeBron James.

Next: Alvin Gentry said what about DeMarcus Cousins’ game?

Up next:

The Pelicans welcome the red-hot 4-1 Orlando Magic into New Orleans for a Monday night matchup. The Pelicans can really make some believers out of people with another convincing win over a good team, which would be their third straight.