The Los Angeles Clippers arrived in New Orleans riding a 6-game winning streak to go along with their 32-14 record. Heading into tonight’s game against the Pelicans, they had outscored their opponents by 7.5 points per 100 possessions this season, an average only surpassed by the 36-7 Warriors and 38-8 Hawks. Los Angeles would face a Pelicans team missing its best two players, Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday; without them, New Orleans lost to both the 76ers and Knicks just two weeks ago. In early December, the Pelicans faced this same Clippers team in Los Angeles and lost by 20 with both Davis and Holiday playing. The Clippers’ starting lineup leads the league in minutes played together by a very wide margin, and had outscored opponents by 17.7 points per 100 possessions in that time (839 minutes).
Given all of the above factors, a loss tonight seemed to be a foregone conclusion.
Eric Gordon had other plans.
The Pelicans’ oft-injured shooting guard – the player who was originally the key piece of the trade that sent Chris Paul to the Clippers – played what was, without a shadow of a doubt, his best game throughout his tenure in New Orleans. Gordon’s stat line of 28 points on 20 FGA and 7 assists doesn’t even signify how well he played. Eric Gordon had the ball in his hands at so many crucial points in tonight’s game, and he didn’t disappoint in any of them. He handled the basketball effectively. He distributed excellently. He moved without the ball flawlessly. He earned open looks and routinely knocked them down (5-7 from 3-point range). If the Pelicans were to have any chance at beating a top-3 team in the NBA without their top 2 players, they desperately needed Eric Gordon to play like the guy the team traded for 3 years ago. In every way imaginable, New Orleans got what it needed from Gordon tonight.
Other Notes:
- Ryan Anderson missed all 6 of his shots in the first quarter, but shooters have to keep shooting, and that’s exactly what he did tonight. Anderson went 6-11 in the final 3 quarters, including 5-8 from 3-point range. He also earned a game-high 7 free throw attempts, making all of them. His 4 offensive rebounds (9 total) were also huge for the Pelicans tonight. Very impressive game for Anderson overall, especially considering the way it started for him.
- Another great night for Tyreke Evans as a facilitator in this Pelicans offense. Evans finished with 12 assists and only two turnovers, in addition to 11 points and 8 rebounds. Tyreke also led the Pelicans in individual +/-, as New Orleans outscored Los Angeles by a total of 11 points while he was on the court.
- Alexis Ajinca played an integral part in the Pelicans’ victory tonight, scoring 17 points on 11 shots to go along with 9 rebounds (4 offensive) and 3 blocks. DeAndre Jordan got the better of him a bit too frequently on the Clippers’ side of the ball, but all around a very effective game from him. Ajinca has become so important for this New Orleans team when they’re missing Davis or Anderson, as he possesses valuable scoring ability at the center position that Asik is incapable of providing.
- Speaking of Asik, it’s easy to rag on him for his poor offense (which was certainly on display tonight), but he did lead the team in net rating tonight, as the Pelicans were playing at a rate of +18.8 points per 100 possessions in his 29 minutes of action. He made an impact defensively, and even dished out a couple of assists. Overall, a better game for Omer than the volume-based stats might lead people to believe.
- Big-time free throws from Jimmer Fredette to put the game on ice for the Pelicans late in the 4th quarter. For a guy who has seen his playing time fluctuate so much, being able to knock them down with the game on the line was great to see.
- I got more than a little worried when the Pelicans’ lead started to dwindle in the 4th quarter. As the team always seems to do with decent leads, they drifted away from the ball movement-heavy, efficient offense and reverted to standing around for 15 seconds and then running isolation plays deep into the shot clock. The rationale of using more game time to reduce the number of possessions remaining is a poor one, especially when you consider how much worse the offense performs when this strategy is undertaken. Hopefully, it will change some time soon, but I’m not optimistic. Otherwise, tonight’s game was a finely coached one by Monty Williams. He deserves a ton of credit for having his team ready to play despite being without Jrue and AD.
- As mentioned above, the Clippers starting lineup of Paul-Redick-Barnes-Griffin-Jordan that has outscored opponents by 17.7 points per 100 possessions this season in a league-leading 839 minutes. Tonight, that unit posted a net rating of -39.0, as the Pelicans outscored them 53-40 in 20 minutes of action. Not bad.
- The Pelicans collected 14 offensive rebounds against a team that only allows an average of 10 offensive rebounds per game to opponents. Additionally, the Pelicans only turned the ball over 8 times, far fewer than the 14 turnovers per game that the Clippers have forced so far this season. Finally – and likely most importantly – Los Angeles only made 25% of their 3-point attempts, with Redick and Crawford going just 1-11 from beyond the arc combined. Succeeding in these areas is how you beat a team as talented and fundamentally sound as the Clippers.
Ultimately, this game certainly could have gone the other way. Many of the Clippers’ 21 missed 3-point attempts were pretty good looks; had they made even one more of those threes, the last few minutes of the game completely change. But make no mistake about it – the Pelicans absolutely earned this victory tonight. A great overall team effort, highlighted by a stellar individual performance by a guy who was so long overdue for one.
Congrats on an excellent performance tonight, Eric. It was truly a pleasure to watch.
15 responses to “Eric Gordon Leads Short-Handed Pelicans to Impressive 108-103 Win over Clippers”
With NOOOOOOOOO PROBLEMS!!
I agree that this was a fantastic game for EG. However, stating that “Eric Gordon had the ball in his hands at so many crucial points in tonight’s game, and he didn’t disappoint in any of them.” is a bit over the top. He had a couple of EGregious turnovers that led directly to points for the Clips. That is to be expected when playing CP3. Gordon’s shooting confidence has really blossomed, and he seems to be able to work past the occasional mini-slumps that in the past few years would shut him down in the 2nd half. Solid defense was also provided by the Commissioner tonight.
Tyreke played the best defense I have ever seen him play on CP3 most of the night. He was dialed in, and stayed with him and in front of him like a champ. If he would do that all the time he would be an All-Star. Anderson’s defense on Griffin was surprisingly effective. I remember seeing ZERO successful lobs from CP3 tonight. Yay!
Cunningham moves toward loose balls and grabs them. Awesome concept. I’d like someone else to consistently adopt that technique when Cunningham is not on the floor. Anderson had a few long ones tonight.
Love Asik, hate the hands. Offseason juggling camp is highly recommended.
Great write up of a great, and surprising, team win.
Young Pels are growing up as a team. If we can solve our back up PG problem, we’ll make a serious push at the playoffs
With a healthy Holiday and Davis, the following could be our first and second units:
1st – Holiday, Gordon, Cunningham, Davis, Asik
2nd – Wolters/Jimmer, Evans, Pondexter, Anderson, Ajinca
Credit Monty these past few weeks for mixing up the rotation to stagger minutes as well. I think we are starting to see a team who knows what works and trust each other. Finally having decent SFs helped in that regard.
If we can throw in our Finishing Five to end games, I’m too excited for the potential. Nobody in the West would want to see the Pels in the playoffs.
This is an odd read coming from the same writer who – after only 2 games had been played by the Pelicans this season – advocated benching Eric Gordon in favor of Jimmer Fredette or Luke Babbitt.
I had to watch this on a gamecast, and going into the 4th I was saying to myself, it’s amazing just how they are keeping this ~10 pt lead, but I knew that was just not going to hold until the end of the game. It was a question of if they could keep playing as well as they had been to close it out. In the last half-minute, with the lead too preciously small for any degree of comfort, those free throws by Ferdette were bigger than big, that was the moment I could see that we were actually going to pull this one out.
Come On Pelican The version of Eric Gordon who has returned to the court post-injury has been a completely different player than the guy who started the season according to countless statistical metrics (in addition to the eye test). That being said, the numbers for that opening night starting lineup are staggeringly good, so although Gordon didn’t play terribly well individually, his presence within that group made the team harder to defend.
Regardless – do you have a point? Am I not allowed to criticize a player when he plays poorly and then praise him when he plays well? While I’m confused at the intent of this comment, I’m happy to have an intelligent conversation about it.
MasonGinsberg Come On Pelican Yes, it seems that EG is a completely different player right now that what we’ve seen the past 2-1/2 years. Suddenly, as mentioned in the article, he is the player we were hoping to get when he was acquired. While it’s a small sample to say anything for sure yet, if he keeps up this level of play, one has to alter the impression we’ve had of his potential with the team, and re-evaluate if perhaps he is a player we need, rather than one we would like to see go away. Those are two extremes, but stellar play and winning is the difference, and he has supplied both for the first time in New Orleans.
MasonGinsberg That’s a lengthy, convoluted attempt to refute a point you claim not to understand. Anyway, glad to have you on the Pelicans bandwagon, at least for a moment.
Come On Pelican and that was an excellent job of sidestepping my question. Also, I refuted nothing.
CoP: If Mason was right or wrong at some point and clung to it after thr situation changed, he’d be an idiot. He did not do that.
Mason might be an idiot, but you pointing this out is evidence to the contrary. Now you need two idiot points to get him.
Or, just enjoy the article.
Also, I and many other people have pointed out Gordon’s flaws over the years. I have also pointed out his success. Last season, I noted a trend in his 3P% that, coupled with how he was missing early on, indicated that his knee was healing, predicting over 60 games played, which happened. Data changes, and so does analysis. Mason is not alone in this.
Idiocy was demonstrated by:
1. Suggesting ANY lineup change after 2 games into the season.
2. Suggesting Eric Gordon should be benched at any point in time while he’s played for New Orleans.
3. Suggesting Jimmer Fredette should start for any NBA team, regardless of whether he was replacing Gordon or anyone else.
4. Suggesting Luke Babbitt should start for any NBA team, regardless of whether he was replacing Gordon or someone else.
5. Going orgasmic about Gordon’s performance against the Clippers.
Would you like me to continue?
So if Davis was not starting or getting starters’ minutes, you would not suggest someone make a change? Oh…
Like is such a funny word, but please don’t continue. You are not actually making a point. You are just angry and typing. You can let off your steam elsewhere.
Please, take the advice and just step away from the article. Everyone knows your feelings here, no need to reiterate.
RobertWelch I did the same thing Sat night…the 3’s made the difference in the game for sure…Fredette’s second opportunity to ice a game at the FT line and he’s 2 for 2…happy to see Gordon playing so well and it appeared he and Tyreke gaining some synergy finding each other for shots…I concur that Ryno was strangely effective defensively…Clips beat Spurs at SA night after so that really was a big win for us…think Clips took us lightly, though