The New Orleans Pelicans must get better on the road

The New Orleans Pelicans dropped another road game yesterday, losing to the Celtics in a game they probably should have won.

The Pels were up by 18 in the first half but then found themselves down by as many as 17 in the second, a huge swing in a fairly ugly afternoon game in which neither team played with much flow or consistency.

It was a game the Pelicans almost certainly would have put away at home, where they’ve been building a nice home court advantage, but they are just a different team on the road.

They were often stagnant in the half court, settling for the type of isolation ball that they usually avoid at home in the Smoothie King Center.

The Pelicans are now just 6-17 on the road this season and have dropped to 2.5 games behind the Trail Blazers for the 10th seed and final spot in the play-in tournament.

We knew things were going to be tough in January, as the schedule is brutal, but if the Pelicans don’t start playing better on the road, they might not make it to February with a chance to chase down the teams directly in front of them.

The New Orleans Pelicans are a different team on the road

The Pelicans will play six of their next nine games on the road, and they will need to be better if they want to keep hanging around in the hopes that Zion Williamson eventually returns.

Luckily three of those games are against the Knicks, Pistons and Rockets, all teams the Pelicans should be able to beat, but the other three are against the 76ers, Cavaliers and Nuggets, all teams fighting for playoff position.

A split would actually be a good result when you look at the New Orleans Pelicans home/road splits, as they just haven’t been as effective away from home.

The Pels are worse on the road in points, rebounds, assists, field goal percentage and 3-point percentage, scoring over six points fewer on the road on average.

This young New Orleans team seems to feed off the energy of the crowd and uses it to overwhelm teams with steals and fast breaks, which offsets the times when they can’t get anything going in the half court.

They are going to need to find some of that energy on the road, as they will be there a lot over the rest of this month and will have to win a few of them to keep pace with the teams around them.