The Warriors came into the game with a 15-2 record, the NBA’s best defense, the 8th best offense, and what was undoubtedly a better team than the Pelicans. A lot of people were calling for various players’ heads or Monty’s head. I don’t buy it. The Warriors were so much better and I thought that was glaringly obvious.
- The Rivers-Salmons-Cunningham-Ryno-Asik unit reared its horrifically ugly head in the 2nd quarter, and the results were awful.
- Speaking of the bench, I don’t know what options we have. Monty tried Horns, he tried Rivers P/Rs, he tried Ryno in isolation. It’s ugly regardless, and without a capable backup guard to be lead ball-handler on the 2nd unit, I don’t know what he can do. Rivers has improved his passing and had a couple nice dump offs to Asik, but he is a scoring guard, not a point guard. And it’s not like he has many people to pass to anyway.
- The Pelicans lost Warriors shooters in transition many times and got burned many times. There are two ways to address this: limit the TOs (which we usually do) or do a better job of getting back in transition.
- This offense has very defined weaknesses. Tyreke can’t shoot. Asik can’t catch/finish in traffic. Jrue isn’t great at getting to the rim. Babbitt is a set shooter and not much else. You cannot be surprised when the offense has lulls- blame Monty all you want, but it’s teams knowing our weaknesses/strengths and playing us that way. AD doesn’t get the ball because other teams aren’t scared of anyone else, so they overplay everything with him.
- Tyreke Evans was really bad tonight and he has the ball in his hands so often. Tonight was beyond rough.
- I thought Jrue did a good job chasing Curry around the floor, but when he couldn’t fight through a screen, he wasn’t getting much help from his teammates, who were generally unaware of what was going on.
- Jrue is also great defending switches and had Harrison Barnes in the post, yet Babbitt decided to leave Klay Thompson to help Jrue on Barnes. MISTAKE!!
- Conversely, Jrue was not so great at finding Davis in transition or not telegraphing his passes. Several turnovers from that.
Finally, would like to address the magnificent game that Davis had. It’s a shame it had to come in a blowout loss. He showed a bit of everything- the spot up jumper, the dribble drive game, and the highlight-reel dunks as well. He was visibly frustrated at the end of the game. He needs help in a bad way.
16 responses to “Pelicans @ Warriors: Observations”
I turned the game on at 30-22 in the beginning of the 2nd quarter and watched the 8pt lead we have evaporate almost instantly it seemed. 2nd unit disaster. I do believe Asik will lead the league in getting his shots blocked. I admit I got a bit sick of watching at times and instead switched back and forth to catch my favorite NC State/Valvano 30for30 to get some inspiration.
Good recap. Gotta comment on Rivers. I’ve been his biggest supporter, but I’m starting to give up the hope I had. Haven’t seen much good from him recently. I’m not quite sure what he does well, he misses open guys, passes up open 3’s, and isn’t that great attacking the rim. Offense was real bad for parts, but defense could have kept us in. We gave up some open 3s. Ryno gotta get a little more consistent to give us that other scoring threat
I like what I’m seeing from Jrue, he looks like he’s slowly getting back to all-star form. Not just from this game, but from recent games. Not much to say about anybody else. We know AD is great nothing to add to that. 2nd unit makes me sick every time they touch the court. One thing I liked was seeing Cunningham trying to crash the boards. He does bring a little more energy/athleticism that I think we need.
Yeah, I know I’m complaining. But I got to get it off my chest. I got tickets to the Warriors game in NO. Hope the Pels can steal that game.
Felt that most of the players on the court didn’t show a lot of effort at times outside of Holiday/Davis/Asik. I felt that the first quarter had everyone alert on defense or on the boards but that quickly went away when that Rivers/Salmons.Cunningham/Ryno/Asik unit was out there. Saw a few flashes but nothing to really impress me besides the three players I mentioned earlier.
And man watching some of our wing players (cough cough Babbit) is painful, people were getting to the rim as if it was a shoot around when he covered them. Maybe having Asik stay closer to the basket would be a solution?
Wasn’t expecting a win but thought from what we showed in the first that it would closer, hoping things click better for next game.
Rough game. Everyone on this team is as good as they will ever be except for Davis. And what more could we want from him?
What did this game drive home for me? The value of 3 point shooting in the NBA and the Pelicans weakness there. To be more specific, the value of 3 point shooting in the NBA from (starting especially) PGs, SGs, and SFs and the Pelican’s weakness there.
Golden State seems to be one of the darling defenses that gets the benefit of swallowed whistles. In the recent past, it was Boston, Utah, and Chicago. Last night we had 17 turnovers (above our average) while GS only got called for 8 fouls (apparently a season low for any team).
I was glad to see AD take control at the end to get his. He needs to do that on occasion, especially when Austin Rivers has your best backcourt shooting percentage at 37.5%, and nobody can shoot from 3. Words can’t do justice to his game right now.
Dante looked like he hadn’t played in months. But, so did Salmons, Anderson, Rivers, Evans, etc.
Curry is so much better than Anderson right now at shooting the 3. He does it on the move, falling down, contested, or whatever. Anderson can’t hit them when his man has already fallen to the ground and can’t get up. I feel like we have one player with a decent shot from anywhere outside the paint: Davis. We only have two semi-reliable free throw shooters: Holiday and Anderson. They don’t seem to miss during shoot-around, so I can’t see how Monty draws the blame for such a cold-shooting team
It wasn’t even limiting turnovers to help out on transition defense. People were flat out not finding guys in transition off made baskets and kept leaving open shooters or not bumping guys barreling to the rim in transition and letting them get layups. I counted 8 made baskets that weren’t fast breaks that were taken within 10 seconds and had no one guarding the shooter. No one.
Monty even told them that in the first quarter. That’s a pretty serious lack of discipline.
Will this coach ever be held accountable? How many professional coaches in any sport have had the pass that this guy gets? He has done NOTHING.
If this team does not start winning AD is not going to re sign in NOLA. There has to be some urgency. We can’t just keep under achieving. We can’t change the roster, we are stuck with some bad contracts. So why not starting beating the drum to change what we can change. THE COACH. All over this city we love to complain and whine about Eric Gordo, well guess what. That situation cannot be changed. Change the coach please.
ryanschwan Lack of discipline is a direct reflection of the HEAD COACH.
Why is it that we have our second go around with a top 5 player in the league and we as an organization struggle to put the right complimentary players around them? Also… is this the worst jump shooting team in the league? Seems like more times than not… shooting is just awful
Steven J Rivers is the same player he was his rookie year. He has never done anything good. Why do people support him, I don’t get it.
I kind of expected this blowout. They simply have more weapons than the pelicans.
Tyreke turned the ball over 7 times and couldn’t make layups finished 4 of 15. Jrue contributed 4 turnovers and shot 5 for 15. We were playing the leagues best team record wise who happened to be on a 10 game winning streak. someone please tell me how we pin all the blame on Monty?
where are all those people from the summer? lol
trading for asik was so stupid long term wise smh
trading for holiday was just as worse
why why why!!%!%!
Michael Beasley is just chilling
he’s our best bet at the 3 for mad cheap
who could mesh with our core
they all around same age played together
but yet
we sign Dante?? really Dante??????
Qunicy Miller is at home chilling
another 3 with better offense than wtf we have on this team
and yet
we sign Dante????
my gosh
being a pelicans fan hurts!%!%!
Anthony Davis is gonna soon Kevin love us or
shaq us like early 90’s when he left for the Lakers
its just sad 2 see we have no future 1st picks or any real depth on this team
why did we sign Tyreke? to miss layups?
does gordon still play??
poor davis
doing it all by himself
like cp3 of past
they better be some trades made!!%!%!%!%
signing out
#FrustratedPelicanFan
I hope we get some players around AD before he CP3 us Salmons,Mekel (really lol) I would be willing to trade anybody off this roster besides AD of course and maybe Jrue and i hear people calling for monty’s head but don’t forget Dell put this team together so if monty goes so should he this team won’t cut it. #PissedOffPelsFan
I think y’all are overdoing it a little. We played a real good team, and we had a bad game. AD isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The team is doing about as good as a team that had the first pick in the draft a few years ago should be expected to do. We’ll improve, but I’m happy where we are and where we’re going.