New Orleans Pelicans: Player Grades in 120-107 Win Over Timberwolves

Holiday narrowly missed his second triple-double in a week and the New Orleans Pelicans kept their playoff hopes alive with a win over Minnesota.

Jrue Holiday was not about to let the New Orleans Pelicans lose twice to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a week. He posted a monster game on Sunday afternoon and the Pelicans were able to hold off the pesky Timberwolves 120-107.

This was a big win for the New Orleans Pelicans, who were able to pick up ground on idle Memphis and find themselves just four games out of the eight spot with 18 to play.

The Pelicans also picked up a game on the San Antonio Spurs and Sacramento Kings, who both lost on Sunday. The Pelicans are now in a tie with the Kings for the ninth spot but the rest of their road trip is brutal.

After a few much-needed off days, the New Orleans Pelicans will head to Sacramento to face the Kings on Wednesday before a tough back-to-back against the Jazz and the Clippers on Friday and Saturday.

A strange wrinkle could be added to these games, as the NBA told teams to prepare to play games in empty arenas in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

It’s going to be a wild finish, but the New Orleans Pelicans were able to stay in the hunt with a big win over Minnesota.

Here are the player grades for the Pelicans’ win over the Timberwolves.

Point Guards

Lonzo Ball was strong again, leading the team through his hustle and defense and hitting some timely shots. Ball is playing his best basketball of the season and filled out another scorecard, notching 18 points, eight assists and five rebounds.

However, Ball’s disturbing trend of turning the ball over too much continued, as he coughed it up seven times.

Ball vacillates between the spectacular and the spectacularly foolish, often throwing a one-handed no look pass when a bog standard chest pass would do. Ball is one of the best passers in the NBA and can do things like this:

https://twitter.com/PelicansNBA/status/1236781748010311682

But he also throws at least one or two passes a game that he shouldn’t.

Gentry certainly doesn’t want to put too many restraints on Ball, as he is a borderline genius with the ball and can do things that other players can’t.

Lonzo has to be better at choosing his spots to be spectacular and cut out the mental lapses that lead to unnecessary turnovers.