In a repeat of the Atlanta game, the Pelicans were able to lead the game for most of the first half, and then couldn’t handle the adjustments and renewed focus of a team with simply more talent than they could field.  The turnovers that killed the Raptors in the first half dried up,  the Pelicans couldn’t hit their threes, and the Raptors hit a few big bombs in a row and the lead stretched to 16.  The Pels could never cut into it.

The hole is getting really deep.

Observations:

• Eric Gordon was looking pretty explosive tonight, and was frequently able to shake DeMare Carroll with sharp crossovers on the perimeter.  The result was one of his most complete scoring games I’ve seen en route to 30 points.
• The Pelicans refused to respect Carroll as an offensive force, repeated putting their weakest defenders on him.  Carroll kept trying to take advantage of this, but only managed 11 points on 14 shots.
• The first two times Valancuinas had the ball in scoring position, he immediately pump-faked.  The first one was ridiculous because he was standing at a ninety degree angle from the basket.  No one was thinking he was shooting that.  Asik just stared at him.
• Asik had on display all his worst traits – stone hands, weak putbacks – and his strongest.  With him in the game the Pelicans held their own on the boards and could actually slither into the paint off his picks.  When he went out, they were crushed on the glass and the guards couldn’t get free.
• In the third, when the Raptors started to pull away, both Ish and Douglas went into hero mode.  And it was terrible.  Bad, bad decisions.  They finished the game 2-16.
• Ajinca looked solid, but he had some bad issues with fouls when he had to fight Valanciunas instead of the back-ups on the Raptors bench.  He really couldn’t handle all that beef.
• Jrue looks solid, but he is still pressing to try to have an impact.  It can result in some bad shots.
• The Raptors were diligent in the way they guarded Anderson.  The didn’t switch often to prevent him from posting up – and their power forwards did a good job staying right on him on the perimeter, resulting in almost no open looks.
• Gee looked really good defensively in the first quarter, and bad afterwards as he kept pressing too hard for turnovers and getting burned or fouling someone.  It’s possible he’s a better defender than Pondexter – but that doesn’t matter since he can’t shoot a lick and the Raptors ended up ignoring him.

Next game is a Noon Eastern tilt in New York. Will the hole get deeper?

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