New Orleans Pelicans: 3 keys to preseason-opening victory over Hawks
By Willie Lutz
Monday night went very well for Alvin Gentry’s rotation against the New Orleans Pelicans, who won 133-109 with an offensive outburst in Atlanta.
The first one is in the books. Even if it was just game one of the preseason, the New Orleans Pelicans played four quarters of competitive basketball, something that fans didn’t always get to see last year. Overall, the Pelicans gave fans a dominant performance in their preseason-opening 133-109 victory on the road.
Going on the road to open up their preseason against the Atlanta Hawks, the Pelicans showed up to play.
Outrebounding Atlanta by a margin of 54-44, New Orleans worked the glass with ease. Working on both ends of the floor, the team was able to add 15 offensive rebounds to their total.
New Orleans looked like a mismatch against a smaller Atlanta Hawks team, who are focused on spacing the floor and setting up three-pointers. Holding the Hawks to 34.1% from that range helped the Pelicans push their way to victory.
In their first game of the preseason, the team looked surprisingly sharp. The New Orleans Pelicans coaches and players had mentioned the high volume of the team’s players were in the Big Easy for voluntary workouts for a lot of the summer.
One year removed from a team that simply fell stale, this Pelicans’ bunch gave fans something fresh and exciting to watch on Monday night in Atlanta. After 10k-plus showed up for an open practice, a well-performed preseason game should help get the city of New Orleans buzzing, not that the team’s offseason moves didn’t help jumpstart that cause.
Let me just say, after one of the craziest sports offseasons I’ve experienced in my lifetime. As someone who loves the physical game of basketball, It’s kind of exciting to be talking about real games again, even if it’s just preseason play.