The New Orleans Pelicans hung on to beat the San Antonio Spurs despite using only eight players.
It wasn’t pretty but the New Orleans Pelicans were able to grind out a 98-95 win over the division rival San Antonio Spurs in the first home game of the season.
It was an ugly game from the start, with both teams looking like they’d had too much egg nog but the Pelicans were able to overcome some cold shooting early on to take a halftime lead.
They built that lead to 14 during a hot 3rd quarter but then the bench gave it all back (more on that in a minute) before the Pels were finally able to put it away with their crunch time lineup.
So far Stan Van Gundy has been deploying Josh Hart with the starters in crunch time, which is probably their best lineup except for having only one good free throw shooter in Brandon Ingram.
This came into play when Steven Adams missed two free throws late to give San Antonio a chance to tie.
It was ugly but a win is a win and it was nice to see the Pels get a “W” behind their defense and rebounding. Here are my overreactions, starting with the good stuff.
New Orleans Pelicans: Overreactions to 98-95 win over the San Antonio Spurs
Overreaction #1: The Brandon Ingram/Steven Adams Pick-and-Roll is Unstoppable!!
This really isn’t an overreaction.
The combination of Adams’ space clearing screens and Ingram’s proficiency from the mid-range, make this play very difficult to defend.
The Pels went to it over and over late in the game, with Adams clearing out defenders so B.I. could enjoy wide-open 18 footers which he can hit all day long.
Lonzo Ball got in on the action as well, using Adams’ screens to get himself some open looks.
Those shots are going to be there all the time, so if the Pelicans continue to knock them down it can be their go-to play when the 3-pointers aren’t falling.
Now on to the negatives.
New Orleans Pelicans: The Pels’ bench is terrible
Overreaction #2: The Pelicans do not have a bench
After admitting that he needed to use his bench more after losing to the Heat, Stan Van Gundy used a grand total of eight players against the Spurs.
You can’t really blame him. No one on the Pelicans’ bench has done much to earn minutes except for Josh Hart (more on him later), and SVG is not just going to give minutes to guys who don’t deserve them.
Nicolo Melli is unplayable at this point. Jaxson Hayes got more minutes but did little with them, putting up a -15 plus/minus and causing Stan Van Gundy to use two timeouts in a row.
If one thing has been made clear, it is that Ingram, Lonzo and Adams cannot be on the bench at the same time.
It’s also clear that the Pelicans rely heavily on J.J. Redick to hit shots, which he did not. Without him the Pels’ bench unit struggles to score, so SVG is going to have to do a better job of staggering Ingram and Ball to make sure one of them is always on the floor.
The Pels’ starters played well for the most part against the Spurs but the bench nearly gave the game away again.
Only one bench player has stood out so far, and the Pels may end up regretting how they handled him in the offseason.
New Orleans Pelicans: The Pels may regret not extending Josh Hart
Overreaction #3: The Pels will regret not extending Josh Hart!
Congrats to Josh Hart on his engagement!
Hart had his best game of the season against the Spurs, scoring 12 points and grabbing 10 boards in 33 minutes.
Hart has not shot the ball well or done much on offense, in fact, he has turned it over more times on fast breaks than he has converted them, but he has still been one of the most valuable Pelicans so far this season.
Stan Van Gundy clearly trusts him and appreciates what he does, as Hart is part of the Pels’ crunch time lineup.
The Pelicans and Hart were unable to come to an agreement on a contract extension, which doesn’t mean that they won’t.
But if Hart keeps playing like this the Pels might have to pay him more. I don’t know how far apart the Pels and Hart were contract-wise, but if he continues to be their best and most important bench player, there are going to be other teams wondering what he might look like on their roster.
The Pelicans decided to take a “wait and see” approach with Ball and Hart and so far both look like they are going to get the pay raise they want.
The New Orleans Pelicans got a sloppy win against the Spurs but it is a good sign when you can get a win on an off-night. The Pels will try to carry that momentum into their next game against the Suns.