New Orleans Pelicans news: open practice and fourth preseason game

After dropping to 0-3 in the preseason, the New Orleans Pelicans held an open practice Sunday for the fans and are preparing to play their fourth preseason game on Wednesday.

The New Orleans Pelicans did not look good against the New York Knicks, dropping to 0-3 in the preseason. They attempted to give the fans something to cheer for on Sunday when they held an open practice in front of a record crowd.

The players themselves acknowledged the fan support in spite of the preseason struggles. Guard Jrue Holiday had this to say when speaking on the fans.

"“I think I’ve seen it from when it was barely anybody in here,” Holiday said. “They see that we’re working hard and trying to win for them every single game. Them coming-out and supporting, it’s a blessing and more than we could ask for.”"

The Pelicans did their best to reward those in attendance with a couple of highlight plays and some playful times as well. The crowd was especially delighted after watching a spectacular 360 dunk by guard Frank Jackson.

Jackson also had to display even more moves during a timeout when the Pelicans showcased a rookie dance off. While this is technically Jackson’s second year with the team, he missed all of last year nursing injuries. I think I’d rather watch him dunk. You be the judge.

https://twitter.com/PelicansNBA/status/1048990019346739201

While that was all fun and games, it was back to business as usual Tuesday as the Pelicans gear up to play the Miami Heat on Wednesday. The Pelicans are still seeking their first win of the preseason after another lackluster performance in New York.

The same issues that reared it’s ugly head in the first two losses presented themselves here again. The Knicks had 52 of their 106 points in the paint. The Pelicans have not found a way to keep the opposition in front of them.

Couple that with the 23 turnovers the Pelicans committed and you can see why Coach Alvin Gentry was so frustrated by the performance. He said as much after the loss:

"“I didn’t think we played very good at all,” coach Alvin Gentry said. “We didn’t have ball movement; I think we ended up with 19 assists, that’s not who we are at all. We turned the ball over 23 times … obviously you can’t give up a third of the points a team scores on turnovers. I just thought we tried to do too much. We didn’t have good ball movement. Our defense was a little bit suspect as far as guarding the ball.”"

It was encouraging to see Nikola Mirotic and Darius Miller back in the lineup. Both seemed to make up for lost time as Mirotic finished with a team high 19 points and 12 rebounds, while Miller was red hot from three shooting 5 for 7 for the game.

I would like to see more consistent ball movement from the team. Too many times guys start to dribble one on one and end up causing a turnover as the shot clock is expiring. This is leading to easy fast break opportunities for the opponents.

Thankfully, this is the preseason so games don’t officially count. Habits do however, and the Pelicans need to correct the bad ones before the games start to count next Wednesday.