New Orleans Pelicans: Grades for humiliating loss vs. Nets
New Orleans Pelicans vs. Nets: Grades for the guards
Lonzo Ball’s three hasn’t really fallen since his return from injury and, while he still scored 15 points against the Nets, he took too long to get going.
Ball seemed hesitant on offense to start the game, passing up some shots either after a rough shooting night or just because this was a back-to-back. Regardless, Ball missed all but one of his six threes. Uncharacteristically for him, the UCLA draftee went 5-of-5 from two-point range.
It’s nice to see Ball continue to explore his mid-range shot, which he has intermittently shown over the course of the season. If his three continues to fall as it has been, then stepping inside the arc and taking a few shorter jumpers can help unlock the rest of his game.
On defense, Ball looked tired, but he wasn’t the only one. Like most Pelicans, he was not up to scratch on this end of the floor.
Isaiah Thomas has scored at least ten points in both of his appearances for the New Orleans Pelicans so far, but his stat line was a little misleading against the Nets.
The former all-star checked into the game late in the first quarter, but then barely played again until the fourth quarter. Thomas was in for the entirety of the last period, but that essentially amounted to glorified garbage time.
All but one of Thomas’ buckets came after the Nets at one point had amounted a 35-point lead, so while he scored, those makes were largely meaningless and in an uncompetitive environment. Thomas also went 1-for-6 from the perimeter, which is subpar for what Stan Van Gundy expects from his guards. On defense, he wasn’t really tested since he guarding similarly-sized Chris Chiozza a lot of the time.
The good news is that Thomas got plenty of game time to keep working himself back into tip-top NBA shape. It’s too early to judge him.