New Orleans Pelicans: 3 Things to Watch vs. the Los Angeles Clippers

New Orleans Pelicans vs. Los Angeles Clippers: Points in the Paint

Points in the Paint

The Utah Jazz showed other big teams in the NBA how to beat the Pelicans, which is just to keep pounding the ball inside.

The Jazz guards were able to penetrate into the lane and there was nothing there to stop them once they did. This led to a lot of lobs, layups and bunnies for the Jazz, who finished the night with 56 points in the paint.

This has plagued the Pelicans all year, as they aren’t very big and don’t have a legitimate shot blocker other than 20-year-old rookie Jaxson Hayes.

Derrick Favors was ineffective stopping Rudy Gobert and the Jazz were unstoppable down low.

The Los Angeles Clippers are not as big as the Jazz, especially without Harrell, so the Pels have to do a better job of defending the paint.

This might mean a bigger dose of Hayes, who outplayed Favors for most of the game and at least made the Jazz alter their shots at the rim, though he finished the game with zero blocks.

None of the Pels’ bigs had a block against Utah, so they need to do more to alter and deter shots in the lane.

But this is also on the Pelicans’ guards, who did a poor job of stopping Jordan Clarkson’s dribble penetration and put a lot of pressure on the bigs.

The Pelicans are not suddenly going to become the Bad Boys Pistons on defense, but Alvin Gentry needs to try new combinations if things aren’t going well with Favors.

Points in the paint have really exposed one of the weaknesses of the Pels’ roster, which is that they just aren’t very big.