The New Orleans Pelicans smothered the Suns on defense, once again flashing signs of promise on that end of the floor after a poor start in 2021.
The New Orleans Pelicans arguably had their most complete performance of the season in Wednesday’s 101-123 win over the Phoenix Suns, setting the tone on defense before delivering on offense.
The Pelicans started the season under new head coach Stan Van Gundy as one of the best defensive teams in the association but fizzled out after a few weeks.
As New Orleans’ defense sputtered, it seemed like the Pelicans were reverting to their old habits of the previous season: a lack of effort, little discipline, turnovers, and no accountability.
Many wondered why Van Gundy—a defensive coach by trade who had partly been brought in to mend the Pelicans’ troubles on that end of the floor—was not living up to his potential, especially compared to what a likeminded coach in Tom Thibodeau was doing for the New York Knicks.
If Van Gundy couldn’t get through to the Pelicans’ players, who could?
The win over the Suns is just one game, but defeating one of the top teams in the Western Conference primarily because of a thorough defensive performance could be an inflection point in the Pelicans’ season.
Here is how they did it and how it can be sustained.
New Orleans Pelicans: How the Pels stopped the Phoenix Suns
The first thing to note in the Pelicans’ win was how improved the collective team defense was. Van Gundy said after the game that this was the Pelicans’ showing this year and, although New Orleans’ win over the Milwaukee Bucks comes to mind in terms of offensive firepower, it certainly did not seem like they had the same defensive dominion.
The New Orleans Pelicans held the Suns to 101 points, garbage time included, which is about 11 points less than what the Pelicans concede to teams on average.
In the clip above, Devin Booker tries to use the screen Deandre Ayton sets for him. Steven Adams and Lonzo Ball do a great job navigating this, with Adams stepping out hard to contain Booker and Ball staying with the play. Meanwhile, Brandon Ingram rotates to not give Booker an open pass to Ayton.
This forces Booker to try a highly difficult skip pass to Mikal Bridges. The pass is inaccurate, but Josh Hart comes over anyways and closes out with high hands to force the miss. If Bridges had gotten a wide-open three, it would have likely cut the Pelicans’ lead to single digits at an important stretch in the game.
This sequence shows trust and belief in what the Pelicans want to do defensively. It’s not something we have seen a lot this season, but New Orleans has the length, athleticism, and know-how to do this every single game.
I also want to use this play to praise Ingram and Ball in particular.
Ingram makes the right rotation to Ayton at first, but also scrambles back to Jae Crowder just in case Booker’s pass comes off. Van Gundy has mentioned over the last few days that everything starts with his best players—purportedly Ingram and Zion Williamson—and Ingram held up his part of the bargain against the Suns.
New Orleans Pelicans: Lonzo Ball’s defense is a game-changer
As for Ball, he had another nice shooting night, but also made Devin Booker work for every point he got. Ball has all-defensive team potential, but he only taps into it intermittently.
By the end of this season, Ball will hopefully be consolidated as one of the NBA’s best guard defenders, rather than a player whose defense you mention only as a complement to everything else he does.
This second clip also represents a complete defensive possession for the Pelicans. Here, the Suns have a really competitive five on the floor with two all-stars (Booker and Chris Paul), a premier 3-and-D wing (Bridges), a good floor spacer (Frank Kaminsky), and a potential franchise center (Ayton). The Pelicans need to pay attention to all of these threats—and they do.
The possession starts with Paul handing the ball off to Booker, who is being defended by Ingram. As Ingram recovers through traffic, Ayton sets a screen on Booker, but Adams is alert and comes up to delay any potential pick-and-roll action.
As Adams deters Booker, Ayton dives to the rim but Eric Bledsoe is there to stop him. That forces Booker to pass it back to Paul, now stationed on the wing, but Bledsoe simultaneously gets back with a perfect closeout on Paul as Adams fills in on Ayton. The possession ends with Paul giving it to Ayton in the post who has to take a tough fadeaway and misses.
The Pelicans’ timing is impeccable. When Ingram is initially trying to come back to Booker, the Pelicans’ defense could have been shredded had Adams not stepped up or Bledsoe not rotated into the paint. The same thing happens later if Bledsoe and Adams are not exactly on the same page when Paul gets the ball on the wing looking for a three-pointer.
The discipline is also there. Everyone is aware of everything happening on the floor, particularly Bledsoe who had the chance to either foul Ayton on the duck-in or rush out to Paul. Instead, the Pels’ point guard closes out completely under control even with Paul shooting 45 percent from three over the last week.
It seems clear that this is the way forward for the New Orleans Pelicans, especially on defense. This Suns game should be used as a blueprint for the rest of the season by Van Gundy and his coaching staff, but the New Orleans Pelicans cannot afford to rest on their laurels.
One elite defensive showing doesn’t make up for weeks of malaise and nonchalance, especially when targeting the playoffs.