A Christmas Miracle: New Orleans Pelicans Snap Denver’s Winning Streak

The New Orleans Pelicans need Derrick Favors

What did we learn from this game?

With Derrick Favors back and playing well the defense on this team can be suffocating. In the four games before this one the Pelicans kept opponents under 100 points twice and one of the games that an opponent scored more than 100 went into overtime.

During the game ESPN displayed a graphic that showed some “hustle” stats in which the Pelicans excelled even though their overall team defense was not good. It may be surprising to learn that at the time of this game New Orleans ranked first in both deflections and loose balls recovered per game and ranked second in contested shots.

While the team was good in those categories, which makes sense when you think of the Jrue Holiday and Lonzo Ball starting in your backcourt. The team was very bad at defending inside. Once Favors came back, first from injury then the unfortunate passing of his mother, the team finally had a defensive anchor who could protect the rim.

How did we feel about the team after this game?

Cautiously optimistic is probably the best way to phrase it. The Pelicans just beat the second best team in their conference pretty soundly and they did it while turning the ball over a lot. In total New Orleans coughed it up 19 times in the game and Denver scored 27 points off those turnovers.

To counteract the negatives those turnovers brought, the Pelicans hauled in 13 offensive rebounds in the second half after only getting two in the first half. When Nuggets head coach Michael Malone was interviewed before the fourth quarter he said the offensive rebounds they allowed in the third were unacceptable and that his guys may have enjoyed Christmas morning a little too much, that he was just looking for five guys who wanted to play on the floor. The Pelicans grabbed six more offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter.

As a team the Pelicans shot 45.6% from the field and 41.9% from the three. You could see the makings of a good team here, they just needed to keep playing like this until Zion was healthy enough to play.

Notes while watching the game

• There were only five games on this Christmas day, that number could be a lot higher if next season does start in late Dec like it’s been rumored to.
• Michael Malone got a contract extension on Christmas eve, best Christmas gift ever?
• Nikola Jokic and Wilt Chamberlain are the only 7-footers to average more than 7 assists over a whole season.
• This was the second holiday matchup between the Pelicans and Nuggets this season. New Orleans got their first win of the season in a game played on Halloween.
• Ryan Ruocco, one of ESPN’s announcers for the game along with Chauncey Billups, had a great line for a Christmas day game. “Redick dashing down the floor”. Just a great line there. After the Redick buzzer beater he said “sometimes you just keep finding presents under the tree” quality game from Roucco.
• Golden State pulled off the largest upset on Christmas day in over 30 years by beating the Houston Rockets 116-104. The Rockets were favored by 11.5 points.
• It was nice to see an ad for the College Football Playoffs again, any reminder that LSU won the national championship is always welcome to me.