Despite Tyreke Evans finally finding his scoring touch going to the basket, the Pelicans still managed to lose the game to the winless Utah Jazz, giving up a 16-point lead built in the first half.
I’ll have more to say about this later, but for now, I’m just going to touch on the three keys to the game I gave in the Game On post.
Swing the Ball
There were seven swing passes that went side to side in the game, as the guards typically took turns driving. Three of them happened over the last few minutes as Gordon and Holiday hit big shots to keep in contact with Utah. I wish we saw more of them.
Pick and Roll Defense
Dreadful. Awful. Horrendeous. Twelve of the Jazz’s last thirteen plays of the game were high pick and rolls, and the Pelicans stopped them from scoring on 2 of them. TWO. It was Diante “I was literally out of the NBA yetsterday” Garrett and Derrick “If you make me dribble you can have the ball” Favors running 9 of those plays. And the Pelicans couldn’t stop them. Son of a Bitch!!!!!!!
Play with High Energy
This I can’t complain about too much. There were a few times I thought the Pelicans didn’t get back on defense the way they should, but they tried hard.
I like Withey. He should play more.
Time to go mope.
39 responses to “Pelicans can’t defend anyone, fall to Jazz”
Look on the bright side schwannie. Top 5 protected!
Brifkind Only problem is, I don’t think another rookie can help this team out much. They need some veteran leadership. Playoff veterans, to be specific.
i want to hear monty’s excuses tonight…
The problem with this team is that they play sans any attitude. Im sorry, but I havent seen one drive from Tyreke, EG or Austin where they tried to dunk the ball, as opposed to flipping up a ‘hope inget fouled leaner.” At least go for the dunk and miss it, show some chutzpah!
RobertWelch Brifkind I think this is quite right.
I can’t wait until Withey’s 3rd year. He should be around 250lbs or so by then and give us excellent minutes. Besides that, I hear Cleveland and Sac are on the phones trying to make trades. I wonder what will come out of that? Both teams need a good wing.
im disappointed with monty Williams really
I just started making my fire monty sign for da 76ers game lmao
After what I’ve seen this last week, I was fully expecting to lose this game. I told myself beforehand I wouldn’t be upset if we lost. But when the final buzzer sounded I was furious. I am still furious.
And even if we had won, I’d be furious. I swear to God, when you watch the same thing happen over and over and over again, you want to bang your head against a sharp object. So let’s continue pack the paint and hope the guy with the ball doesn’t pass to the open shooter? Let’s hope they just miss the shot? Let’s DARE them to shoot a 3?
Losing to this team is bad enough, but you know what? The Jazz could have blown us out of the water. This game wasn’t close. We gave up them countless WIDE OPEN 3’s. The Jazz simply couldn’t hit them. There’s a reason they were 0-8 before tonight. Had they made a few more of those open 3s, we’re talking about a 15 point loss.
The Pelicans have superior athleticism. They (sometimes) play with energy. I consider all five of our starters, individually, to be good defenders. Yet our defense is a joke. Atrocious. Why is this? Only a few players on this roster are still new to the system.
How many times do we have to lose to the scum of the NBA for Monty to realize his “system” isn’t working? You had a training camp. You had a preseason. You drill this stuff into the ground every day in practice, and you see the results on the court. And we are getting burned by very bad teams. So what do you do? Continue to do the SAME DAMN THING.
Sure, some of the blame probably falls on the players. These guys are young and don’t have alot of chemistry. The blame doesn’t fall on any one player. And there is no player in the draft, or via trade, or via Ryan Andersen that can single-handedly fix these issues. I still love this roster. We have plenty of talent, but you don’t need a wealth of talent to play good defense.
This is Monty’s 4th year. The defense has been bad for all but one season. The one good season (CP’s last) it was Mike Malone running the defense, NOT Monty Williams. So when you are known as a defensive coach and your defense has been this bad for the last 3 years, what do you have? What’s the point?
When your guys continually fail to rotate/communicate properly, continue to give up wide open 3 after wide open 3, you continue to settle for midrange jumper after midrange jumper, and you CAN’T DEFEND A PICK AND ROLL against inferior players, how is this NOT a coaching issue?
Another epic fail i was LMFAO after watching this so called game because i was not suprise by the lost can someone get rid of the clown Monty because he’s not mean’t to be an NBA coach.I wish people would stop defending him because he’s a joke we need a coach that build our team into superstars not someone who going to be Tebowing every night.Expect saturday night’s game in the arena to be half empty because the so called fans have gave up on this team an i don’t blame them.
LOL an 6’10 center who can’t defend the rim.
Was there anyone that didn’t see this loss coming?
……Man, everyone is upset. I kinda new this would happen though. This is a new team and it takes a long time to mesh. Plus, its not all Monty, look at the guards and wings when they help pack the paint, they are so busy trying to get a steal that it’s more difficult to get back to the perimeter. I think this team needs discipline. No matter how good or bad a coach is……these prima dona players in the league need to step up and be disciplined in their craft, offensively and defensively.
Pluto D Preach
xman20002000 and jr smith. And Brandon Bass. We also ran Marcus Thornton and Darren Collison out of town, although I somewhat understood those two. Tyson Chandler and Birdman were let go because we did not think they had value. We let David West go on a low contract when we sure could have used him.
All organizations miss on young players and I am happy to blame Byron Scott for just about anything. But Xavier obviously deserved some PT. You can’t just blame it on his bad defense, Vazques led us in minutes last year. You cannot expect to be a successful organization if you cannot properly value your assets.
Brifkind ah yes, the hard drive to the rim. Been a while since we have seen that from a guard around here…2009? When CP had a good knee still?
Clef504 …which is something any good coach should be doing?
Papa Pelican its only been 9 games..AND ITS THE NBA..
If any NFL team that you supported was 3-6 you would still have faith in them to get hot and make the playoffs..and they only have 16 GAMES!!!
The NBA has 82….
moral to the story..RELAX!!!!
When your guys continually fail to rotate/communicate properly, continue to give up wide open 3 after wide open 3, you continue to settle for midrange jumper after midrange jumper, and you CAN’T DEFEND A PICK AND ROLL against inferior players, how is this NOT a coaching issue?
In a nutshell…
I counted 79 times last night that no one came over to help defend the roll man as he came through the lane to catch the pass. 79 freaking times!!! Can’t we have at least one effective defensive rotation against the most basic play in the game.
What does it say about Monty that the best (only) defender on the team hasn’t been at a practice all year?
Only help defender.
The NHL have had to 3 coaching firings and they’re 2 months into the season.
Last night’s loss was infuriating because there’s no excuse for the same defensive execution lapses. I understand that the team and season are young but to continually make the same mistakes means that the teacher isn’t breaking through. We got pounced twice by the Suns in a week and the Lakers took it to us with Xavier Henry getting Top Play on ESPN. When he was in NOLA, he couldn’t get a WANTED poster in the USPS….what is the matter? Although I had a feeling that the Jazz would get their first win, I didn’t want to believe it. There are so many glaring problems but Aminu giving us 0 or close to it on offense and defense is simply sad. This three-loss road trip showed such a lack of discipline. Well, Tyreke turned a corner, at least for this game. Will he stay on this road is another question that won’t be answered until Saturday.
I watched Chandler/West/Paul go to other teams and become cornerstones on their squads and we’ve become fortunate to get Anthony Davis, but this kid isn’t a loser and cannot carry an entire team defensively and offensively. If we don’t make changes soon, he’ll want to leave too. I’m really grateful for showing him how to be a pro off the court, but who’s gonna show him how to be a champion on the court?
Random thoughts: Just defend the damn three point line… Tyreke had a great game… Holiday played well. I realize the pick and pop play to Jason Smith is money, but ditch it, and run more plays that set up Gordon and Holiday catching and shooting from the behind the three point line… Tyreke needs to stay aggressive. Same with Gordon… I like Austin Rivers better than Brian Roberts…. Defend the three point line. This is just getting absurd. After all these games, you would think Monty would change something. Insanity.
Different squads and same old mistakes / lapses…. Some say that it just 9 games into the season, but i have seen the same old mistakes for 200+ games…Maybe Monty is not a bad coach…but he is not a championship coach as well. Here (argentina) in soccer we have good coached for low ranked teams (tht usually fight fr not loosing the category) and for championship teams…I guess Monty would rank in the first ones…A good caoach for the first couple of years of rebuilding to discover cheap talent, but sadly, it looks like he cant take the team to the next level…
Papa Pelican and we are two weeks into the season with a roster that is pretty much brand new, much like every single roster that Monty Williams has ever had. And not until pre-season were we even projected to go to the play-offs.
I really wish we hadn’t done so well in the pre-season because it blew up everyones expectations of what to expect this season.
News Flash get ready for some growing pains, they are going to happen.
It seems to be more pressing to get this team on a better track because it’s obvious AD is going to be a champion, and if we want him to be a champion here in NOLA we need to start making it look like it can be done. It’s obvious this team is already need to be built around him. I thought it might take another year or two for that to take place, that others would contribute more of a leadership role, he would need another season or two to step into that. But he is already at the point where he could be the focal point of most any team in the NBA, with a only few exceptions (Miami, OKC, etc.).
I thought the time table would be another couple of years with developing AD, but he needs to be getting into the playoffs now. If he doesn’t get there this year, then it’s going to be hard for him to progress to the point where we can afford to keep him on a max contract down the road. He is ready to be in the mix, but right now it doesn’t look like we can give him the opportunity to be in the mix. And yes, I think right now it’s more about the coaching than the talent on the team. The lack of focus and execution is going to keep them out of the playoffs, not talent.
Well at least the scored over 100 for a change, even though they gave up more AGAIN. I’ll take that very tiny victory.
Yeah you right.
I feel like this either they get another veteran on the team via trade for leadership or make changes in the coaching staff or Monty.
For everyone saying to relax, and that it’s only 9 games… wake up.
Agreed, the team needs to mesh together better, and that will happen, but really that’s an issue more on offense.
There is no excuse for the complete breakdowns on defense, particularly for a coach who prides himself as being a defensive specialist.
I thought Monty was a really good coach before this year.
I thought he got the most out of his players, but this season is just plain bad. Defensive coach that can’t coach up the D.
Disappointing
That was pathetic. Why the hell is Jason Smith showing on a high pick n roll higher than the damn pick guy???? What the hell! Go under the pick and get back! That’s fundamental basketball. Easy stuff. Go under, show, and get back. Instead both guys show over the pick and the guy is rim running free and easy to the damn goal. And stop cheating off your guy at the 3 point line. Just guard your guy, especially when the play is nowhere near you. You can’t help! So bad. So so bad. I’m just so pissed that my ticket rep duped me into season tickets. I should have known better.
I Still wanna get a look at this team with Ryan Anderson , and while no one thinks of him as a particularly impact-full defensive player, that doesn’t mean he won’t have an effect. He knows the system ( lets hope their is still a system), Groove/Rhythm/Chemistry , better spacing leading to better defensive positioning….admittedly I may be reaching a bit. But we won’t know which problems are systemic or temporary until we see the full team, full playbook.
The most frustrating thing and I think was brought up on the podcast, is that we have a team with so much more talent than last year that appears to be giving less effort.
We have not been good
but let’s not start glorying Xavier Henry
Xavier Henry is still terrible.
Omer Asik is requesting a trade we need a starting big at center.
At this point, our defense is so bad I would actually consider Asik and Jones/Montejuinus for Anderson. I just don’t see it getting any better without another defensive big.
Fire Monty. His scheme is not working.
The Steamer out til January he was nothing to this team anyway waive him for a leauge minimum center because we all know you sign a D leauger the word is tanking.
[…] by a loss to the previously winless Utah Jazz. According to our friends at bourbonstreetshots.com, 12 of the Jazz’s last 13 possessions were high pick and rolls. They only managed two stops. Look for more pick and rolls for the Sixers […]