The New Orleans Pelicans defeated the Houston Rockets 122-115 on the road behind a tremendous performance by Lonzo Ball on his return.
The Pels reshuffled their starting lineup for the tenth time this season with Ball’s return. The former UCLA guard missed the previous seven games because of a hip injury, but led New Orleans in minutes, points, assists, and steals in his comeback game.
Stan Van Gundy was still without Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram, and Josh Hart. Against the Rockets, Kira Lewis Jr. was added to the Pels’ injury report with a right calf strain. This meant that an unusual frontcourt duo of both Jaxson Hayes and Steven Adams got the start. It is a rarity to see two centers start together in the NBA nowadays.
Despite that, all of the Pels’ starters broke double digits and all but two players that were active scored 10 points. It was a valiant effort from an injury-ridden team that is still close to qualifying for the playoff play-in tournament.
Meanwhile, the Rockets were without John Wall, Eric Gordon, David Nwaba, and Dante Exum among others. Danuel House Jr. sustained an injury during the game; ditto for Nickeil Alexander-Walker on the New Orleans side of things.
Stephen Silas’ team is one of the worst in the NBA, at one point embarking on a franchise-record 20-game losing streak. This was a game the Pelicans were expected to win.
Here are the player grades for the Pels’ win against the Rockets, starting with my personal MVP:
New Orleans Pelicans vs. Houston Rockets: Grading the best player
What a showing from Lonzo Ball on his return.
Ball was tremendous all night long. He scored 27 points in 37 minutes, while also picking up nine assists. Ball was automatic from beyond the arc.
He took a career-high 15 threes and made eight of them. At this point, it’s no surprise to see Ball fire up a high volume of threes, but he was really feeling it from the perimeter against Houston. Ball became just one of five Pels players in history to score at least eight threes in a game.
The Pelicans have missed Ball’s playmaking in his absence. He makes the complicated look simple and makes the simple look routine. He had six turnovers to his nine assists, but that was just a byproduct of a little rustiness to shake off and that the Pelicans relied on him heavily.
Finally, Ball’s defense was very much welcomed by a Pelicans team that had been struggling on this end of the floor. I’ve said it time and time again, but he has the potential to be one of the premier guard defenders in the NBA.
Just watch how Ball guarded the Rockets’ ballhandlers on Sunday night and how the Pels’ guards defended in the last game. There is a world of difference.
New Orleans Pelicans vs. Rockets: Grades for the guards
Eric Bledsoe continues his streak of decent performances.
Even though the former Bucks guard finished 4-of-15 from the field, he still contributed 19 points. Importantly, all four of his makes came from three, but Bledsoe was also very good at getting to the free throw line.
Bledsoe took a season-high eight free throws for him, which is nice to see given how up-and-down his jumper can be. That’s now six consecutive games scoring double digits for Bledsoe.
Let’s see if he can rebuild his reputation around the league.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker only played 14 minutes before limping off the court with an ankle injury.
Let’s hope he is alright, as the Pels’ combo guard has been a huge boon to his team over the past month. Before going off, Alexander-Walker was not having a good game offensively—2-of-5 and having missed his only three—but he was competing on defense.
Alexander-Walker’s absence from the rotation after his injury meant more minutes for Naji Marshall and Wes Iwundu. Both of them will inject the Pelicans with more defense and length, but sorely lack Alexander-Walker’s self-creation abilities, general knack for scoring, and especially his ability to space the floor.
If Alexander-Walker is out for an extended period of time, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Isaiah Thomas’ 10-day contract with the Pels get extended. New Orleans will need more offensive firepower.
Thomas is expected to be available for the Pels’ next game after missing this one because of health and safety protocols.
New Orleans Pelicans vs. Rockets: Grades for the wings
James Johnson was my pick for player of the game behind Lonzo Ball, with the veteran forward putting up another quality game for the New Orleans Pelicans.
Getting Johnson in return for JJ Redick who did not figure in Stan Van Gundy’s plans, was injured, and is an unrestricted free agent in the summer looks like a steal by the Pels’ front office so far. It’s only a three-game sample for Johnson in New Orleans and things could always change, but I think it is safe to say that he has exceeded expectations so far.
Simply, Johnson is a great basketball player that has shown the ability to do a bit of everything. He’s unafraid handling the ball, even demanding it down the stretch of a close game such as this one. He can equally stretch the floor— 50 percent from three for the Pels—and forcefully attack the basket, something he did repeatedly versus Houston.
That’s without mentioning that Johnson has been genuinely good on defense over the past two games. Against the Rockets, I once again thought that he was probably the Pels’ most active help defender. He had two steals and four(!) blocks.
After a nervy start during which he had two unforced travels, Naji Marshall picked it up in a big way and was a valuable contributor during his 24 minutes of action.
Marshall is getting more run with Josh Hart out, a logical move since he and Wes Iwundu are the only natural wings Stan Van Gundy has available.
Against the Rockets, Marshall had the best game of his NBA career. He did a little bit of everything, finishing with 12 points, five assists, four rebounds, and one block. Marshall took the three he was given, handled the ball a little, and earned his free throws.
The former Xavier man played intelligently and within himself. He did not try to do too much and made a good case to continue getting minutes. I like the former Marshall’s long-term potential as a role player in the league.
Iwundu played 20 unremarkable minutes in which he didn’t do anything wrong, but didn’t do anything great either. That’s not necessarily a bad thing since he would probably just get spot minutes here and there for the Pelicans under normal circumstances.
One thing to note: Iwundu made his first three in a New Orleans uniform. The former Kansas State draftee had not scored a three since January 17.
On defense, he was okay if not too foul prone. Iwundu got five relative quick fouls and, given that his game time really hangs on his defense, he will need to cut those down going forward.
New Orleans Pelicans vs. Rockets: Grades for the bigs
A solid night for Steven Adams at the office in what was a fairly calm game for him.
Adams started alongside Jaxson Hayes in a previously unseen two center lineup, but he was actually guarding 6-foot-4 Jae’Sean Tate a lot during the first half. Tate is essentially a small-ball five for the Rockets, so the move made sense tactically speaking.
The Kiwi center largely kept Tate quiet, even if he struggled a little at times stepping out to the perimeter. Tate finished with 19 points, but only one of his buckets was on Adams.
Adams was solid offensively. He was aggressive when he needed to be and finished with 12 points that could have actually been more if he had more success from the free throw line.
However, the bad news is that Adams was entered into the NBA’s concussion protocol because of a shot he took to the back of the head. A seemingly heated conversation with Stan Van Gundy also raised some eyebrows, but I don’t think anything should be made out of it.
It was interesting to see the Pelicans use this game as a sort of sandbox for Jaxson Hayes.
The second-year big sort of had the green light to do whatever he wanted. Hayes played with complete liberty to expand his game, which was both good and bad depending on the possession.
At one point, Hayes got the ball and immediately drained a three. But there were also times where he wasn’t very effective handling and driving to the basket. Still, it was a fun viewing experience and Hayes’ potential is tantalizing.
Maybe this seems a little bit low for Willy Hernangómez given that he scored 15 points and was important in getting the Pelicans over the finish line.
However, the Spanish big suffered a lot defensively. He eventually made up for his defensive woes on the other end of the floor, but the Rockets got a lot of joy targeting Hernangómez.
In particular, Kelly Olynyk was getting relatively open shots every single time because Hernangómez was uncomfortable rushing out to the perimeter to defend his three-point threat. This is the story of why the Pels center is not a regular in the rotation.
However, Hernangómez imposed his will on attack. He was too big and skilled down low for the Rockets’ undersized frontcourt to handle. Christian Wood and Kelly Olynyk, both more finesse players despite their stature, or rookie Kenyon Martin Jr. had no answers for Hernangómez.