New Orleans Pelicans: Last year’s mistakes return in win over the Raptors

The New Orleans Pelicans showed grit in their season-opening win against the Toronto Raptors, but there’s still work to do.

The New Orleans Pelicans kicked off their 2020-2021 NBA season tonight with a 113-99 win over the Toronto Raptors. Many fans thought this season would begin with fireworks and fastbreaks for the Pelicans, but it turned out the game was much more of a mud fight.

The Raptors got an edge on the Pelicans early, coming out aggressive, and playing smart defense. Before the younger Pelicans knew it, they were facing a few double-digit deficits in the second quarter. However, Stan Van Gundy was able to get this Pelicans’ team ear, and the game flipped at the half.

A big 38-22 third quarter led by Brandon Ingram pushed the Pelicans back on top, and their defense led them to mount a lead of their own that the Raptors wouldn’t come back from.

Without question, this win was big for this young team because if this game was played last year, they would’ve rolled over when the Raptors went up big. That’s the Stan Van Gundy effect right there.

Unfortunately, it’s time to stop with the pleasantries and breakdown some real concerns the Pelicans showed in this game!

The New Orleans Pelicans showed their mistakes from last season still haunt them

The biggest storyline I took from this game was that the Pelicans’ mistakes from last year still haunt them.

This team started out slow, allowing the Raptors to mount a lead early, losing focus on defense, and playing loose on offense.

Following that up, the bad habit of turnovers was still present in this game as the Pelicans committed an awful 24 of them!

I’d say I’m surprised after how dominant this team was in the preseason, but in reality, this team did show some of these flaws there too for stretches. Of course, we have to wonder if the Pelicans executed poorly early on, or if the Raptors put them in this position.

What I can say though is that is that those signs sent the alarms off in my head, because I certainly don’t want this team to face the same fate as last year. Now, I know it’s good that the team was able to shake it off in the second half, but you won’t win many basketball games by spotting your opponents a double-digit lead and committing turnovers.

Obviously, we can say it’s still early, and kudos to Stan Van Gundy and Brandon Ingram for reigniting the team, but there are some troubling trends that Pelicans fans have to keep an eye on, to start the year. Luckily, we’ll get to see this team face a pretty similar opponent in the Miami Heat on Christmas Day!