New Orleans Pelicans: Looking Back At The Worst Loss In Franchise History
By Tim Burke
New Orleans Pelicans: Looking Back At The Worst Loss In Franchise History
Who Had The Best Game? Worst Game?
Luka easily had the best game here, while it wasn’t as gaudy as his performance just a few days earlier. He would have to settle for a cool 26 point, six rebound, nine assist game while going 2-8 from three.
Deciding who had the worst game for the New Orleans Pelicans was tough. Eight players got over 20 minutes in this game and eight of the eleven Pelicans had a plus/minus of at least -20. Pretty much every Pelican had the worst game by this measure.
However one key player for New Orleans had a game that was so below his standards it needs to be pointed out. Lonzo Ball had just two points, four rebounds and two assists that night, well below his season averages of 12.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 7.0 assists.
And yes at this point in the season Lonzo was struggling to get to the level at which he was playing when the season was paused. But just two nights earlier Ball had an outstanding 20 point, six rebound, 11 assist, three steal and two block performance in an overtime game against Phoenix.
What was the highlight of the game? Moment?
This game featured quite a few pretty good dunks, a lot of them off a lob from Doncic. The best highlight is no different. Towards the end of the third quarter Doncic tossed the ball up for Maxi Kleber to slam it down.
After setting the pick, Kleber rolls straight to the basket and gives one glance toward Luka just before he gets to the free throw line. Meanwhile Luka has gotten to the three-point line and sees that Kleber is wide open as his defender, Jahlil Okafor has stepped up to slow down Luka but is now caught in no man’s land while trying to rotate back to Kleber.
That was all the separation either would need. Doncic “pulls up” with his feet straddling the line and floats the ball towards Kleber, who catches it just outside the restricted area while still going up. Three Pelicans, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Kenrich Williams and Okafor, are near Kleber but none are able to even slow down the inevitable. Kleber throws it down in a sea of Pels and the Mavs lead by 27.
A blowout like this usually doesn’t have a ton of great moments, mostly one team taking advantage of the other’s missteps. That’s why to me the moment of the game had nothing to do with a player on the court.
Instead the moment happened late in the fourth quarter after Nicolo Melli fouled Seth Curry when Curry got Melli to bite on a pump fake and jumped into him for three free throws. While an event like this happens frequently when watching basketball games, this time Curry needed to get the shot off before the shot clock ended.
Indeed we were about to get a replay review to determine what exactly took place. Just a few seconds into the review a fan yells “ref they’re down by 30 just let them play”; to me this was the moment because there was no other noise in the arena at the time other than a smattering of cheers. So many fans had left the game early with the result already decided that it seemed like the in arena entertainment had gone home early as well.
What was the main takeaway from this game?
Luckily this was just an early December game and not a must-win game as this reinforced the dangers of living and dying by the three pointer. While New Orleans is a top-five three-point shooting team in a league that has seen three point usage explode since the Golden State Warriors started their run and changed how teams play, this game shows that every team still needs a couple players who drive to the basket and make the difficult shots.
The Pelicans do have Jrue Holiday and Brandon Ingram who are capable of doing just that but if neither of them is scoring (both had 14 points), one of the other players needs to step up. That’s why Lonzo’s stat line was so disappointing.
What did we learn from the game?
I learned it’s terribly un-fun to rewatch a historic loss. In this game only one starter played in the fourth quarter, Jaxson Hayes, who would be a backup if the entire roster were available. Though it showed how bad the second unit has been for New Orleans this season.
In this game the Pelicans bench had 28 points, led by Frank Jackson’s eight; the Mavericks had 29 bench points after three quarters and would finish with 65 points. While I don’t want to keep harping about how bad the team was in this game, it’s important to remember that Dallas is currently the seven seed in the west.
New Orleans had a 11-30 record against teams currently in the playoffs and yes most of those games took place early in the season before Zion was with the team. The Pels went only 4-7 against playoff teams with Zion in the fold. The bench needs to get better for the team to have any shot of making the play-in games with Memphis when the season is restarted.