New Orleans Pelicans: Grades for blowout loss vs. Warriors

New Orleans Pelicans vs. Warriors: Grades for the guards

A terrible game for Lonzo Ball after his career-high 33 points versus the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Ball “picked” a bad time to have this sort of game, with it being on national television and also coming off the back of an interview in which he said he saw himself becoming an all-star soon. Like I wrote recently, Ball still has to become a lot more consistent—ditto for this New Orleans Pelicans team.

The Pels’ point guard contributed with eight assists, seven rebounds, and two steals, but he was off the mark on offense all night. Ball truly struggled to score, making just one of his nine threes and finishing 3-of-18 from field overall.

Defensively, he was okay but it’s tough to shower him with praise after watching Steph Curry drop 41 points. Ball competed hard, but he just didn’t make enough of an impact.

Hopefully he bounces back on Tuesday.

Eric Bledsoe was better on offense than on defense, for me.

He had a poor start to the game, but turned things around starting in the second quarter. Bledsoe went on a little bit of a run by himself to keep the Pelicans in the game at the half, with a nice pass, a finish in transition, and a self-created and-1.

The former Bucks guard was then solid for the rest of the game, even if it was just glorified garbage time by the end. Bledsoe was aggressive getting downhill, like we’ve seen in recent games, and looked to get himself to the free throw line quite often.

Down the other end of the floor, I thought Bledsoe struggled to make an impact. He looked gassed having to chase Golden State’s players and didn’t do much to deter their backcourt.

Kira Lewis Jr. played just seven minutes against the Warriors, a stark contrast to his season average of 16 minutes per game.

I’m not sure what the reasoning behind this decision was, but you have to think that it might have to do with the complexities of Golden State’s offense coming too early on the defensive end for the Pels rookie. During his time on the court, Lewis took and missed one shot.

The Pelicans could have used his jolt of energy off the bench, so let’s see if he plays a bigger role in Tuesday’s rematch.