Grades: New Orleans Pelicans can’t weather storm, fall to Thunder
The New Orleans Pelicans were short 4 of their most important players and were unable to get the job done on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder despite a valiant effort.
Playing a top three team in the Western Conference on their home court is a tough enough job as it is. Combine that with 4 of your 5 starters sitting out, and it’s darn near impossible to pull off a victory. This was the situation tonight as the New Orleans Pelicans took on the formidable Oklahoma City Thunder. As you would expect, the contest did not go the Pellies’ way. It was a respectable effort, but ultimately not enough.
149. Final. 116. 69. 122
Clipped Wings
The Pelicans were short Anthony Davis, Julius Randle, Nikola Mirotic, and E’Twaun Moore going into tonight’s matchup, leaving Jrue Holiday to be the lone regular-starter left. The makeshift lineup New Orleans went with did their best to keep it as close as possible and scrapped their way to a tie game after one quarter, but the healthy Thunder proved too much to handle down the stretch. New Orleans got it within single digits after falling behind, but just couldn’t quite pull off a win.
2 Superstars > 0
OKC’s prolific wing, Paul George, was just announced as a starter for the Western Conference in this year’s All Star Game. The 8th best scorer in the league got off to a hot start as he nailed three triples in the first quarter. His co-star, Russell Westbrook, nearly had a triple-double in the first half. Going up against a duo like this without the help of Anthony Davis was understandably too much for the Pelicans to handle in this one as both guys ended up with big games.
Inferior Interior
When you’re short the league’s second best shot blocker, your defense close to the basket is clearly going to decline. Aside from Paul George, no one on either team could buy a bucket from range early on. Because of this, OKC started looking to the paint where they noticed a clear advantage with the interior being defended by Jahlil Okafor, a dude who’s not necessarily known for his defensive prowess. The Pelicans put up tons of points in the paint themselves, but their defense was just not good enough down low tonight for it to matter.
New Orleans Pelicans. ELFRID PAYTON. B+. Elfrid got the start tonight and put up a double-double. He shot under 50%, but overall had a solid game. Early in the game, he made a nice feed to Okafor for a dunk. He showed some hustle by following a miss for a second chance bucket. Payton is a nice insurance policy to have in these situations where your starting lineup is so banged up.. PG
B+. Holiday turned the ball over a few too many times, but hit some clutch shots down the stretch to keep this game interesting. He joined Elfrid in the double-double club, just one rebound shy of a triple-double. Jrue did his best to step up in the absence of his fellow starters.. PG. New Orleans Pelicans. JRUE HOLIDAY
SOLOMON HILL. C+. Hill got himself into foul trouble, but still played a ton of minutes. He looked good offensively early on in the first quarter, but wasn’t able to get anything going after that. He was active on defense and made a beautiful over the shoulder pass to Okafor at one point. It would’ve been nice to see more from him overall in the second half.. SF. New Orleans Pelicans
DARIUS MILLER. A. Miller drilled five three-pointers in this one and wound up with 21 points, which was awesome to see. 7 boards and a block were icing on the cake for him. You really couldn’t ask for too much more from him. His plus/minus was bad, but that’s not all on him.. SF. New Orleans Pelicans
B-. Fresh off of double-doubles in his previous two games, Jah was able to be effective offensively in this one as well. He shot an efficient 9 of 12 on his way to 18 points. Unfortunately, his interior defense was not good enough tonight. He got bullied by Steven Adams and was unable to effectively alter any shots of his opponents down low.. C. New Orleans Pelicans. JAHLIL OKAFOR
C-. Clark saw some rare playing time tonight and wasted no time drilling a three shortly after he came into the game. Unfortunately, that was the only shot he hit. He didn’t add too much of anything else in his 7 total minutes.. SG. New Orleans Pelicans. IAN CLARK
B-. A mixed bag offensively for Frank in this one. He looked terrible from distance, but confident in the paint. Overall, he was a nice boost of energy off the bench despite missing all 5 three-pointers he took, finishing with 12 points.. PG. New Orleans Pelicans. FRANK JACKSON
A-. Diallo was the hustle guy tonight, and it paid off as he put up 16 points off the bench on 7 of 12 shooting. He was solid enough defensively as well.. PF. New Orleans Pelicans. CHEICK DIALLO
C. Kenrich also made some nice hustle plays, including drawing a charge on Westbrook early on. Besides that though, he was just kind of a body on the court.. SG. New Orleans Pelicans. KENRICH WILLIAMS
The Pelicans are back in action Saturday night as they defend home court against DeMar DeRozan and the San Antonio Spurs.