New Orleans Pelicans Win a Marathon in Triple Overtime Against the Bulls

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Published: December 2, 2013

Jrue Holiday ran straight down the floor and hit an and-one layup to propel the Pelicans in triple over-time. This was a game to remember. Ryan Anderson was astounding as he finished with 37 points.

In fact, it’s surprising the game even went to a third overtime. With New Orleans up by two points in the second over-time period, Ryan Anderson was called for a dubious offensive foul. Luol Deng (37 points) then hit a layup to send the game to a third overtime.

In the final period Ryan Anderson hit a fade-away two and a three in the corner to put New Orleans up by one. Joakim Noah hit a running left hook after Anthony Morrow missed a free-throw and it looked like things would go to a fourth over-time.

Then came one of the most brilliant offensive plays I’ve ever seen out of a time-out. Jrue Holiday stood on the opposite side of half court with the rest of the Pelicans spread out. The referees blew their whistle to commence the action and Jrue sprinted directly down the middle of the floor. He received the ball, had a wide open layup and hit it as Taj Gibson fouled him.

What made this even greater was that the play came against one of the best defensive coaches in the league. New Orleans then chased Mike Dunleavy as he missed a three. Anderson grabbed the rebound and that was it.

Highlights

  • Before I get into the individual awards lets review what happened to send it to OT. Jrue Holiday hit an elbow jump-shot in the 4th quarter, exactly where he missed one a possession ago. Then in OT things looked to be over, but Deng missed a jump-shot and Holiday found a streaking Eric Gordon who hit a three. It was incredible.
  • Ryan Anderson was the man-of-the-match (rugby term). He was doing all he could to keep New Orleans in the game and looked like a mesh of Larry Bird and Dirk Nowitzki. With Anthony Davis out it continues to make no sense why the Pelicans would trade Anderson, especially on such a brilliant contract. He played 57 minutes tonight and deserves all the rest he can get.
  • Al-Farouq Aminu played a superb game. About mid-way through the 3rd Monty Williams realized that Tyreke Evans couldn’t contain Luol Deng. Aminu subbed in and then limited (as best he could) Deng the rest of the way. In fact, in the second overtime Aminu got the Pelicans first 7 points (hits a three, a layup and then a dunk). He finished with 14 points (11 shots), 9 rebounds and 3 steals.
  • Eric Gordon battled hard in this one. He wasn’t hitting his shot with any consistency, but it didn’t deter him from taking big shots and hitting them. He played great defense when he needed to and looked like a closer the team needs. He had 23 points on 23 shots, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.
  • The team as a whole deserves so much credit to battle through an enormous amount of adversity. Calls didn’t go their way, but they just wouldn’t give up. On a back-to-back it’s even more astounding they were able to pull out the win. Regardless of what the result was this team fought till the very end.
  • The Pelicans finish the road-trip 3-0 which is highly impressive considering Anthony Davis was not present for half the time. Stay tuned at BourbonStreetShots for news on Anthony Davis’ injury. Still no word on how long he’s out for.

Lowlights

  • The referees did everything they could to keep the Bulls in the game. A suspect offensive foul was followed up later with an out-of-bounds call which should have been Pelicans ball. Luol Deng hit the ball out of bounds with his left hand, but the refs refused to give the ball to the Pels. The reason this was so maddening was that minutes ago the refs over-turned an out of bounds call in the Bulls favour which was pretty much the exact same thing.
  • Lou Amundson is just not the answer as the back-up 5. His rebounding is awful, he constantly fouls and he’s a lamp-post on defense. I understand giving time to veterans, but rather than bring in Tyreke Evans when Jason Smith fouled out, Williams’ first instinct is to go with Amundson. Very head-scratching how he continues to get time.
  • Jason Smith started off very well on the rebounds in this game, however that changed drastically towards the end. This is likely due to fatigue so it’s not that upsetting, but it really can be in the heat of the moment.

My Twitter Timeline

I figured I’d include my timeline from around the end of the fourth Q till the end of the game. It’s pretty funny to look back at how palpitating the game was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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