New Orleans Pelicans: Grades for revenge win vs. Warriors

New Orleans Pelicans vs. Warriors: Grades for the guards

Eric Bledsoe played well on both ends of the floor.

Offensively, Bledsoe mostly picked his spots well and didn’t force anything. He’s seen an uptick on attack over the last few weeks, averaging 14 points in his previous five games despite not shooting the ball well from the outside.

But it was on defense where I thought Bledsoe was even better. His impact is not reflected on the box score, but Bledsoe did a very good job in the second half against Stephen Curry. The former Bucks guard was tenacious in his pursuit of Curry and, even though there were a few times where he couldn’t stop arguably the best scorer in basketball, he essentially silenced him late on.

Bledsoe has been a nice surprise to end the regular season. There was a long stretch of the season where he didn’t fit in at all and I dreaded watching him play, but he deserves credit for turning things around.

Kira Lewis Jr. once again barely got seven minutes of play against the Warriors.

I was curious about whether Lewis would get a longer leash after almost not seeing the court at all on Monday night, but this was not the case. To be honest, it was deserved.

The Pels’ rookie was largely bad against Golden State. He missed all five of his shots and didn’t deliver a single assist. The good news is that most of the shots Lewis took were good looks, but he just failed to convert. As I’ve been writing, I reckon that Lewis has hit his rookie wall.

Defensively, I thought that the Alabama product really struggled. Jordan Poole didn’t have a great shooting night by any means, but he was whatever he wanted against Lewis.