New Orleans Pelicans: Grades for the 111-86 loss to the Phoenix Suns
The New Orleans Pelicans flunked their test against the Phoenix Suns.
The New Orleans Pelicans are going to be up-and-down this season. They have a young roster with a bunch of new faces and a new head coach, so games like last night against the Phoenix Suns are going to happen.
Not only could the Pelicans not hit a 3-pointer, the Suns couldn’t miss. When Jae Crowder is hitting contested step-back three-pointers, you know it is not your night.
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It was an ugly game that will be reflected in the grades and revealed some troubling early-season trends for the Pelicans on both ends.
Here are the grades for the Pelicans blowout loss to the Suns.
New Orleans Pelicans: Point guard grades in loss to Phoenix Suns
Point Guards
D. . Point Guard. New Orleans Pelicans. LONZO BALL
The only thing keeping Lonzo Ball from an “F” is that he did play great defense against Devin Booker in the first quarter.
But otherwise, it was a nightmare game for Lonzo, who finished with seven points on 3-of-12 shooting, one assist, zero rebounds and three turnovers.
When Lonzo has more turnovers than combined assists and rebounds, that is not a good sign.
While there have been great early improvements for Lonzo on defense, his shooting has been bad. He has hit just 28.6 percent of his 3-pointers, which is important because he is taking seven of them a game.
Lonzo’s shooting is not a huge concern and he will bounce back, but right now he is not providing the Pelicans much offensively.