The New Orleans Pelicans were blown out by the Golden State Warriors in Oakland last night. With a starting lineup’s worth of players missing (Jrue Holiday, Ryan Anderson, Anthony Davis, and Omer Asik all out, and Tyreke Evans’ pulling a walking dead for 15 minutes), the Pelicans look disjointed, and saw the Warriors pull away in the second half. Without Asik to protect the rim, the Pelicans gave up 12 offensive rebounds and 58 points in the paint. Without a ball-handler to get New Orleans into their sets, the Pels saw themselves give up 21 points off 20 turnovers. The Warriors outran the Pels too, scoring 29 fastbreak points to the Pelicans’ 5.

But this is not a game where you focus on the extent of that bad play. On the second night of a road back-to-back where New Orleans came into the set down two of their best six players, and then lost three more throughout the course of the two games, the Pelicans weren’t going to pull out a Cinderella story worthy of March Madness. It is better to focus on the good things that came out of the game. Jeff Withey looked great, being very active and even nailing a midrange jumper that he has been working on before every home game. Alexis Ajinca also looked solid after having a couple of ghost games. The team as a whole shot well, making 11 of their 22 shots from beyond the arc. And even in garbage time, the Pelicans were still moving the ball around, a good sign showing that the team is getting more and more comfortable with each other.

This is not a game that you’ll want to relive, you won’t be holding your breath waiting for the NBA League Pass to archive it. But some good things may come out of this game, and hopefully the Pelicans can get it right before Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers.

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