Moleskin Moments: New Orleans Pelicans vs. Sacramento Kings 11.18


Monday night’s heartbreaker is the kind of loss that, as a fan, you have nightmares about. The kind of game you overthink about the implications of despite the fact that it’s only November. So coming into Sacramento to play the Kings on the second night of a back-to-back, the Pelicans were hoping to bounce back. Here are my thoughts while watching the game:

• Reminds me of last year without Omer Asik, no anchor to the defense, weak picks.

• After that heartbreaking loss last night, the team looks extremely lethargic.

• Tyreke Evans cannot go scoreless in a half.

• Ryan Anderson is going to need to have sets called for him to get easier shots, with him and Evans struggling on offense, the team becomes stagnant and predictable.

• Alexis Ajinca is super slow, that layup McLemore had on him in the third was extremely blockable.

• Anthony Davis is a monster, stealing the ball from behind Rudy Gay on the fastbreak and then getting the ball back to finish with a dunk.

• The Pelicans were outrebounded 24-12 in the first half. Shot 3-12 from beyond as well, one of those halves where you wonder how the Pelicans are only down nine.

• Evans makes a layup “All the angels sing.”

• Ajinca falls into a charge and accidentally tips in a bucket. French 72 is a beast.

• Evans hitting threes is a great sight.

• Davis not getting the ball for four minutes straight is not acceptable.

• Sequence epitomizes too many for the Pelicans. Davis defends Darren Collison off a switch perfectly. Off the long rebound, Evans brings the ball up, with Davis leading the pack being covered by the under 6 foot Collison. Evans drives and gets a charge called on him, fourth foul, no one on Davis.

• Next possession, Jrue Holiday leads a fast break, passing early for a Davis dunk.

• Evans has such a beautiful crossover, splits two and gets a hockey assist for an Anderson three.

• On Anderson’s fourth made three pointer, Sacramento play-by-play guy goes “I don’t know why they keep leaving him open like that.” Me either, but I’ll take it.

• Holiday nine assists after three quarters.

• Davis out at 10:47 in the third, 80-72 lead. (17 point swing from the half.) “Oh boy,” says my father upon this realization.

• DeMarcus Cousins out too, though.

• Pelicans turnover, fast break, timeout Monty.

• The question of what Monty Williams was hoping the team would accomplish with the lineup of Rivers-Gordon-Babbitt-Anderson-Ajinca is one I haven’t answered at the time of this writing. One of the Davis-Evans-Holiday trio should be in to keep the offense steady.

• Come out of the timeout with the same lineup. Rivers missed runner. On the next possession, Carl Landry rips a rebound away from Ajinca and scores off a putback. Four point game.

• Casspi looking great, against the Pelicans, active. Makes you wonder if the Pelicans couldn’t use him as a wing/stretch-4 a la Luke Babbitt.

• Davis gets 1:30 seconds of game time off.

• For the second night in a row it looks like the Jimmer Fredette experience is being put on hold.

• Davis comes up gimpy, I have stopped breathing.

• And Evans can’t make a layup.

• Did the Kings announcer just say “The Great Casspi” ?

• Eric Gordon looking good against Nik Stauskas.

• Pick and roll starting from the top of the key involving Evans and Davis results in an alley-oop one possession, then an open three for Gordon the next.

• Evans with a clutch runner to stop the bleeding for a second.

• But no one can cover Cousins.

• The Kings’ announcer totally said “The Great Casspi.”

• Another great drive and shot by Evans, is the dagger in this one.

• Pelicans win 106-100 on the strength of an amazing third quarter, where they outscored the Kings 31-15.

• “Williams’ quote, ‘we have to know when the moment arrives,’ after they lost last night, seemed to come into play here. Pelicans answered their deficit with a major run, and they answered every subsequent run by the Kings with a run of their own.


11 responses to “Moleskin Moments: New Orleans Pelicans vs. Sacramento Kings 11.18”

  1. What a difference a day makes.  Monty clearly trusts 9 guy, Asik plus the 8 who played 19+ minutes last night.  Tonight the 8 responded better and Monty could keep minutes lower than last night for all 5 iron men but Davis (Yeah!) and Gordon (who played well, Yeah!)  All of the above combine for a win.  I’ll take it.

  2. Teams experience mood swings…its human nature…good solid teams can contradict house.man nature over the long haul and battle those nights were the laser focus is missing…..GOLDEN RULE in the NBA…try to never lose two in a row…nice bounce by the Pels vs the King

  3. 504ever I think he trusts eight guys including Asik. Not sure he trusts Babbitt. Feel like he may just be riding a hot hand after Minnesota and/or a matchup thing since it didn’t look like he trusted Evans covering the bigger Rudy Gay (with Holiday often cross-switching onto Gay.) If he keeps getting minutes a couple of weeks from now I’ll revise, but I feel like Williams is hoping/needing one of the Babbitt/Miller/Salmons trio of bigger wings can come through, more than trusting any particular player to hold down that 9th roster spot.

  4. I toatlly thought several times last night that Casspi would be better than Salmos/Miller as SF. I dont see him similar to Babbit as a strech 4. I wondered the salaries of Casspi and those two SF we have…was this a financial move or Monty/Dell just didnt like Casspi game…?

  5. Nithenz I think there is still hope that Miller grows into a good player/rotation player, he just had the broken foot to start last year, and for personal reasons missed games early on this year, neither of which is ideal. I think the team thought Salmons would give them more than he has. Monty and Dell seem to relish the idea of five active agents on offense, so the idea of a driving Salmons of a few years ago probably intrigued them. Babbitt, while an effective offense-only small ball four, played mostly the three yesterday. I’m guessing he got the call over Casspi due to familiarity after playing with the team last year.

  6. Again, thanks for a great article.  It’s interesting to me that I saw the game in the NBA channel and you gave me a better play-by-play and coverage of the game than the Sacramento announcers.  As I’ve mentioned before, I enjoy reading you “stream of consciousness”? coverage of games.  It makes for an extremely enjoyable reading.  Keep up the good work.  By the way, I do agree with you, Anthony Davis is definitely a Beast to be reckoned with.

  7. I enjoy your highlight summaries Chris! I also like the opportunity it presents to add some more thoughts if you don’t mind, such as:
    -Gordon hits a 3!  Gordon takes it coast to coast! Gordon gets a dime to Ryno! Gordon makes a turnover fumbling the ball around again trying to be cool! Gordon hits another 3!

  8. ChristopherRomaguera 504ever
    Let’s watch this.  (My belief is Monty knows he needs 9 guys he can count on during the season, and Babbitt is one of those guys cause Babbitt can score 3 but only give up 2. That’s winning math.)

  9. 504ever ChristopherRomaguera The thing is, with how we hedge out on picks involving the power forward, Babbitt’s defense doesn’t always give up only two. And it puts more pressure on our bigs with foul trouble. Personally my favorite player of the three is Miller, but if Babbitt keeps shooting well, I understand it. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.