Pelicans Lose In Ugly Fashion to the Nuggets


And that’s putting it nicely.

If you’ve seen the movie Spinal Tap, think back to their album Shark Sandwich. Remember the two word review? That was this game.

I said in the Game On post that I wasn’t sure which Pelicans team we’d see tonight. Maybe they’d get a hard fought win. Or maybe it’d be a road loss.

I did not even remotely think they’d lose to the Nuggets 107-137. The game was close for the first 7 minutes or so with the Pelicans down only 14 to 17. Then it got ugly.

Kenneth Faried lived up to his Manimal nickname and absolutely torched the Pelicans for a career high 34 points on 19 shots in just 27 minutes. The Pelicans had no answer for the athletic forward. Anthony Davis playing only 11 minutes due to back spasms didn’t help, but even before the Brow left the game Faried was lighting up New Orleans. Yet despite him filling up the stat sheet Monty continued to trot out two slow, bulky centers. The smarter move might have been to try and have Aminu slow down Faried. Yet Stiemsma stayed in the game. Frustrating to say the least.

Yes, losing Davis early on doesn’t help anything, but these are professional NBA players. The Pelicans allowed 64 points in the paint. For a team playing two centers that’s horrible. They forced a lowly 11 turnovers. As a team there were only 9 three-point attempts. How does that number not rise when they are down big? How are they supposed to try and get back in the game? Instead they went inside and the Nuggets racked up 12 blocks.  No one seemed interested in guarding the perimeter and seven different Nuggets made three’s tonight.

In a season where playoffs were an afterthought long ago it’d be easy to tell you all just to ignore this loss. Hey, these things happen sometimes. Forget it and just move on. But I’m not going to say that tonight. The effort from the Pelicans in the first half was…just abysmal. According to Nietzsche, the abyss is supposed to look back at you. However the Pelicans pretty much just got lost in some deep dark hole, a mile high in Denver, and kept their eyes closed. And that’s just not okay.

Silver linings: Tyreke Evans played well, and Withey and Rivers got some extended minutes. That’s about it.

Look up that two word review. It applies.


11 responses to “Pelicans Lose In Ugly Fashion to the Nuggets”

  1. Monty plays players that remind him of himself when he was playing. Marginal players that work hard in practice and get little recognition.

  2. Monty’s stubbornness with starting Steamer reminds me of him playing Xavier Henry a lot at the end of last year, when everyone knew he was not going to be in our future.  When I saw Steamer in the starting 5 again – just knew it was going to be a bad night.

  3. You can only ask the bench to do so much night-in, night-out. This is the 3rd game in a row they’ve been asked to come in and not just weather, but beat back, the onslaught. They fared decently vs SAS. They more than did their job vs Sac. and just flat out couldn’t stop the momentum the Nuggets had going tonight. I’d like to see some of these guys get run vs the other team’s starters and see if the results are any different, but let’s face it at this point, it isn’t happening. 
    I called Monty trotting out that pathetic starting lineup again last night pre-game, and that isn’t to toot my own horn. It just shows you that our idiot coach is predictable even when it comes to doing predictably stupid things. I think at this point we can throw the whole, “Monty is starting to learn in the month of March” out of the window. This is a regression of epic proportions.
    If it were up to me, and I’m sure others feel the same way:
    Rivers/Morrow/Evans/Davis/Withey start. I don’t care which scrubs come off the bench. Those are the only 5 I have any vested interest in watching play at this point in the season and coincidentally might actually be a balanced starting lineup.

  4. HawnitsFanatic  
    Roberts instead of Rivers in that theoretical lineup would be better. Otherwise, people will just cheat off of Austin when Tyreke drives.

  5. I am baffled as to why Steamer plays; and starting is simply idiotic.  He contributes absolutely nothing. Monty isn’t blind and sees what we see but he is just so dang gone stubborn.  Sure, you’re the coach and maybe this vote of confidence by Loomis has breed some type of arrogance that he is throwing his blatant stubbornness in our faces.  Every GM in the world won’t offer Steamer a contract after this horrific season. Maybe Monty has made it his personal mission to showcase Steamer’s inability to be a productive basketball player.  I’m left with nothing to do but guess at what is his logic.  We were totally outplayed last night in Denver.  And with Davis having back spasms, it just proved how much this team depends on him…he needs help and dang it Steamer isn’t it.  Ajinca is a work in progress and has potential but Steamer is a “no show” even when dressed out and on the floor.

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