Some guys wore Pelicans’ jerseys tonight and played a preseason game against the Houston Rockets. You may have recognized a few, but with Anthony Davis, Tyreke Evans, Omer Asik, Alexis Ajinca, and a bunch more in street clothes you probably didn’t recognize most of the team. It’d be easy to write this game off as utterly meaningless, but that wasn’t the case tonight.

Notes

–You can see Gentry’s fast style of play working already. On the night the Pelicans played with a pace of 105. Much improved from the plodding under Monty Williams. The second a defensive rebound is secured players are sprinting down the court looking to take the best shot possible. And everyone is involved. It’s not just guards pushing the pace. Big are hustling down the court to be open for a pass.

–Ryan Anderson looks like he is in top form and ready to have a huge bounce back season. He’s averaging over 20 points throughout the past three games. More than that though it’s not solely based on his three point shooting. He looked to get inside as well tonight–12 of his 18 shots were two pointers. He also added 11 rebounds to the stat sheet.

–Tonight was the first game Jrue Holiday played in both halves. It was nice to see his minutes restrictions reduced some. He impressed tonight, especially from deep where he went 3 of 4. This will be especially important going forward in Gentry’s offense where Holiday may not always be the main ball handling guard for stretches.

–Kendrick Perkins scored 10 points. I don’t think that will be the norm during the regular season. He also picked up a tech. That will be.

–The newest Pelicans in Nate Robinson Bo McCalebb both failed to impress, and were completely torched by the Rockets defensively.

–However, Jeff Adrien did look fairly good. He didn’t miss a shot, hit all of his free throws, and was very active rolling to the rim. Keep an eye on him next game.

And that next game is Wednesday! They’ll be in Orlando playing the Magic, before coming home and playing in the Smoothie King Center on Friday.