We won! I kept waiting for Mavericks to creep back in during the second half but nope! We won! The final score was 120-105. It wasn’t even close! Of course, it isn’t all good news as AD left at halftime with a hip contusion. X-rays were negative, though.

Let’s not focus on that. Let’s focus on the fact that the Pelicans are 1-6 and not 0-7.

Observations

• Fast Start – The Pels got out to a 12 point lead before the Mavericks even made a bucket.

• Smith and Gee – Pels fans, myself included, have been giving these guys a pretty hard time for a while. They weren’t perfect tonight, but they were both  good. Their weaknesses are still there, but I thought tonight the Pels strategy played more to their strengths. Gee was moving around more, and Ish was running pick and pops or rolls with Davis. I also thought Ish got really miffed when the Mavericks fouled him twice. I think that lit a little fire under him.

• RYNO – Mr. Anderson finished with 25 points and 11 rebounds. I also loved his post game interview. That dude is a good dude. His bread and butter tonight actually came from his post up game not from behind the arch. The Mavericks were switching guards on him, and he feasted. I’m not exactly sure why they didn’t more aggressively double team him down the stretch, but I don’t care.

• Anthony Davis – AD started off slow, but he really picked it up in the second quarter. He finished with 17-7-2. That’s not a bad night for most guys. That was just a half for AD, who sat the rest of the game with that hip contusion. Look, I’m no doctor so don’t even ask me how long he’ll be out. The x-rays came back negative. That’s very good news.

• Omer Asik – He was back tonight, and he brought some defense and hard screens. It was incredible to me how Jrue and Omer both change this team so significantly when they’re on the floor.

• Jrue Holiday – On that note, Jrue was awesome tonight. He hit two threes and just felt more in the flow of things. He had one nice pocket pass to Davis early in the first. It was a tight window, but he timed it perfectly. I feel like that would have been a half second off last week. Glad to see it happen tonight. Let’s hope it continues.

• Alexis Ajinca – There were a lot of questions about Ajinca and his lack of playing time tonight. On twitter, I mentioned that my best guess was that he was being rested for the game tomorrow. My reasoning was that I’m not sure Omer will play a back to back so Gentry might have wanted to save bodies. He did get 5 minutes of garbage time at the end. Some people on twitter suggested he might be in the doghouse with Gentry. I honestly have no idea and won’t speculate. Gentry was really high on Ajinca during camp, but we are only 7 games in. Let’s let the man expeirment with his lineups before we get our hashtags and pitchforks.

• 3 Point Shooting – I wrote about it in the preview. The Pelicans actually took more 3s tonight, but they were hitting them. The team finished 14-33 (42.4%) on the night. That’s pretty great. Gordon started off real hot, but eventually cooled down. The guy who really carried it towards the end was Toney Douglas. So if you had a bet that Douglas would hit 5-7 from 3 tonight, go collect those winnings.

• Fast break – The Pels outscored the Mavs 23-9 on fast break points.

• Jimmer – Jimmer broke away those break away pants and got some garbage minutes! He missed his one 3, but he did hit a layup.

That’s enough stuff for now. Celebrate this win! The Pelicans play the Hawks tomorrow night. Hopefully, AD will be back, but I wouldn’t expect this team to take any risks with his health.

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