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.

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