New Orleans Pelicans: Takeaways from the Season-Ending Loss to Spurs

The New Orleans Pelicans’ didn’t show up in the first half against the Spurs.

The New Orleans Pelicans wanted to play meaningful games this season, but when they got the chance, they never really showed up.

Things went pretty much the same against the Spurs as they’ve been going: the Pelicans came out flat, had no defensive intensity, gave up a big lead on a lot of wide-open shots and then had to spend the rest of the game trying to get it back.

The Pelicans spotted the Spurs an 11-point lead in the first after playing the worst three minutes of basketball I’ve seen from a pro team in awhile to start the game.

The Pels turned the ball over, didn’t get back on defense and let up wide-open shots from long-range, which the Spurs were hitting.

In contrast, the Spurs came out and played with intensity, didn’t make silly mistakes and executed a clear game plan. We’ll have plenty more about Alvin Gentry this week, but his team didn’t show up against the Spurs with the season on the line.

There was plenty of disappointment to go around Sunday, but here are some takeaways from the Pelicans last “meaningful” game of the season.

The Pelicans Weren’t Ready

The Pelicans have fallen behind in every game so far in the bubble, and in all but one game, gave up a double digit lead in the first quarter.

New Orleans never seemed to be ready to play basketball from the opening tip, and in the bigger picture, they never really looked ready to play at Disney.

I don’t know if this is because of the strange circumstances of the restart, Zion Williamson‘s absence and return messing with the rotations or just the folly of a young team, but the Pelicans were not prepared to play.

I realize that teams had very little time to prep, which affects young teams like the Pelicans more, especially when they were already trying to find a rhythm with Zion, but this team looked like they were going through the motions and didn’t want to be there.

I’m not a therapist, but something seemed off the entire time and the Pelicans never looked ready or willing to play hard.

Let’s hope they at least learned something from this.