In the NBA, teams that make shots tend to do better than teams that miss. I know, shocking, right? That fact is true for more than just the obvious reason, though. When a team misses, the opponent gets to start its possession without the defense being able to get set. As a result, that opponent typically has a higher likelihood of scoring. The Pelicans @ Pacers game tonight was a case study in just that fact. While New Orleans’ defense was downright ghastly at points, it wasn’t as bad as the stats make it look. Bad offense led to bad defense, as Indiana scored about 67% more points on fast breaks than their season average on fast breaks (14 vs. 8.4), and 20% more points in the paint than their season average (44 vs. 36.6). Coming into tonight, the Pacers were making about 57% of their shots in the restricted area this season; 12.75/22.4 per game, to be exact. Tonight? 19/28, which comes out to about 68% shooting in that area. Again, while it’s fair to point the finger at the Pelicans’ defense to an extent, the offense should share some of the blame too, as missed shots led to easy scoring opportunities for the Pacers. Here is a look at New Orleans’ shot chart tonight:
The number that jumps out the most, obviously, is the frighteningly bad percentage the Pelicans shot on non-corner 3-point attempts. Apart from two players whose main value add in the NBA is to stand on the wing or in the corner and wait for the ball to be passed to them (Babbitt and Salmons), the Pelicans went 0-14 from 3-point range tonight. Ryan Anderson and Jrue Holiday accounted for 11 of those 14 misses. If there is a team that New Orleans can still beat despite perimeter shooting like that, Indiana has to be high on the list, but the physicality of the Pacers’ interior defense was simply too much for the Pelicans to overcome.
Other observations from tonight:
- Just a really brutal night for both Pelicans point guards tonight. Holiday couldn’t get his shot to fall, and Rivers simply didn’t play very smart basketball.
- Speaking of Brutal nights, no one may have struggled more than Ryan Anderson. He missed all six of his 3-point attempts and only collected 3 rebounds in almost 29 minutes of play. If Anderson is playing well offensively, the 3-big lineup is an attractive play for Coach Williams because of the versatility it gives the Pelicans on both ends of the floor, but one could argue that Babbitt may have been the better crunch-time choice tonight, scoring 10 points on his 5 attempts (all of them from 3-point range, and he was fouled on an additional shot from mid-range).
- Roy Hibbert put on a clinic tonight on defense. Apart from Tyreke Evans, no one could score at the rim for the Pelicans with any sort of consistency. If there is a reason to re-watch this game, it’s to see the difference in defensive game plans between Monty Williams and Frank Vogel regarding how they use their rim protectors. Obviously, Hibbert is at a level that Asik could never dream of reaching from a shot blocking perspective, but it seemed like Hibbert was in better position to protect the rim far more frequently than Asik. Of course, Hibbert’s ability to knock down a mid-range jumper is an element to his game that Asik simply does not possess, either.
- George Hill played his first game of the season tonight, and his impact was instantly felt for Indiana on both ends, especially offensively. Hill finished with 15 points on just 8 shot attempts, shooting from mostly high efficiency areas of the court. The his bank shot 3-pointer from the top of the key obviously helps, but even without that, a very solid night from a player who was sorely missed by his team.
- Anthony Davis had his ups and downs on both ends of the court, but most of all, the guy is still learning how to play defense in the NBA. AD should be able to stay in front of a player like Solomon Hill, but he got beat a couple times by different Pacers players tonight. Don’t expect those kinds of lapses to occur 2 to 3 years from now, but for the time being, you just have to let him learn with experience. Offensively, it took Davis 18 shots to get 21 points, but his back-to-back 3-point plays in the 4th quarter kept the Pels alive until late in the game.
- If there was a bright spot among the Pelicans’ players tonight, it had to be Tyreke Evans. Somehow, Tyreke was able to score at the rim when everyone else was not, and if he could get a foul call every once in a while in a non-garbage time situation, his night would have been even better. Tyreke finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals, using his athleticism to cause trouble for the Pacers at both ends of the court.
From myself and the rest of my Bourbon Street Shots team, we all would like to wish each of our readers a very happy holiday week. I’ll be in the Blender on Friday night to watch our Pelicans bounce back against the San Antonio Spurs, and I hope all of you will be there with me!
9 responses to “Flat Pelicans Performance Leads to 96-84 road loss to Pacers”
Thanks for the solid recap – helps to get some perspective on an ugly night of b-ball. Team may be too heavily invested in Ryno, who is a so often a +/- drag when not hitting 3s. Rivers looked bad again at point – suspect we’ll see Russ at some point. Also with such bad shooting, wouldn’t hurt to give Jimmer a short run. The team desperately needs a dynamic scorer off the bench.
If no one else will say it, I will: it’s time for Anderson to be traded. His skill set doesn’t fit what this team needs. It’s like putting a circle in a square peg. He can get us some useful pieces.
xman20002000 champsworld504 for all the bricks he’s putting up and lack of defense, we can get J.R. Smith back to do the same stuff Anderson is doing at a cheaper price!
We can’t win if all of our shooters have an off night. Math is a bitch. We only have 6 shooters on our team, and they average 4 or 5 off nights each out of every 10 games played. Anderson has been at about 7, while Cunningham and Davis are at 2 or 3. Jrue, Ajinca, and Babbitt are at about 4 or 5 bad games out of every ten, with either bad % or lack of shot attempts. Evans, Withey, Asik and Rivers are not shooters.
A team that goes 9 or 10 deep (SA, DAL, HOU), or has 2 or 3 reliable shooters (2 nights or less off every 10 such as GS, OKC). The teams above us have that, we don’t. If we can attract veteran shooters to pair with Davis (think Korver, Ray Allen, Reddick, etc.) at a decent price we can get there. However, we have not been able to do so, and have to settle for Jimmer, Salmons, etc. this year. Even when we found Morrow, we couldn’t keep him due to salary issues. Gordon is not consistent and can’t stay on the court, and sucks up all of the salary we could be paying a couple of those vets. I’m hoping that all of the pro-Davis pub will convince one or two of those guys to come our way once we get rid of Gordon, and maybe one of them even before Gordon is off the books.
NOEngineer thanks for getting to the heart of things (viz, the team’s woes): you are spot on request Ryno, only about 30% of games this year is he a plus. I think both Ajinca & Babbitt are better shooters than Jrue & really, just as shooters, are closer to AD: the problem is they rarely get fed by teammates, at least regularly, & often get pulled by Monty. Cunningham also looks like an AD-like midrange shooter – and for many games (read “Ryno off nights”) team would benefit having these 3 eat into Ryno’s minutes. indeed like others on here have noted, team might be better off trading Ryno, like Jason Smith a great guy and team leader, who is just not contributing, and given his poor D and defensive rebounding, really can only contribute with 3s. Remember when Monty kept offensive sparkplug Marcus Thornton on such a short leash, because of his D (which was no worse than Ryno’s, was it?)? I suspect it had more to do with Monty’s ongoing bromance with career “grinders.” I know all the stat guys here talk about long 2s as the “dumb zone” but what can be dumber than our non-Babbitt 3-pt chucking last night? This I know without the advanced stats – that just for fans, last night was painful to watch.
You say all, but to be clear, I can’t stand that label. I also can’t the mindless worship of 3 point shots, even by some fellow writers here.
Jason Calmes Great – and welcome aboard, and let the debate begin (or continue).
Our guards consistently ignore Babbitt when he is open for the corner 3. Maybe if they fed him a few more balls, we would have less problems with 3 point shooting?
So now we have a Babbit love affair going on while he’s hitting, and he’ll be the first back in the frying pan when he puts up an 0-fer. Perhaps Ryno’s inconsistency is related to his time away and/or condition, though he’s taken his share of body shots in this young season. Just seems so fickle with these on-again, off-again bromances when there is a good game or a bad game. Bottom line is consistency and as more games fall behind us than ahead, we will surely know more about a player’s value or ability. In the meantime, I’m just not too fired up about “necessary” roster changes every 10 games. The Spurs lost 4 in a row from 12/15-20 so I’m wondering if they were calling for Pop’s head yet?