The Pelicans needed to tread water through the tough part of this schedule.  They aren’t.  Instead, they are tying lead weights to their feet, just to see what happens.

Tonight, they showed another real cost of all the injuries and line-up uncertainties: these guys simply haven’t played together and when the pressure ratcheted up a little, none of them were doing the right things.  Cole, Douglas, Evans and Gee all took turns throwing bad passes to one another at the end of the third, start of the fourth, and the Rockets simply took the free points and thanked them.

23 turnovers will kill you . . . and all the stupid, stupid fouls . . . and all the dumb shots by guards . . . ugh. The team even did a really good job containing Harden (24 points on 20 shots) and jammed the Dwight pick and rolls enough that he couldn’t get going either.  The plan would have worked, if the Pelicans just hadn’t been so dead set on playing stupid.  I’m grumpy, so therefore you get:

Bitter Observations

• Anthony Davis looked royally pissed off a couple times in this game.  He looked most angry when he chased Ariza down for a transition block, Houston got the ball, all the Pelicans were back on defense, but not one thought it was a good idea to cover Trevor Ariza, standing alone on the wing.  Davis had to run out on him too.  People are whining about Davis’ attitude.  Shit, have you seen this team play?  If I were him, I’d start FedEx’ing boxes of poo to various teammates with cards saying things like “Here’s your defense”  or “Try flinging this to our opponents instead of the ball” or “Please give this your Jersey – because I’d rather play with it.”
• Hey look, Ty Lawson was +23 and had his best game of the season.  And yes, 12 and 6 is his best game of the season.  Congratulations, Pelicans.  Lawson has been good for 7 and 4 on 33% shooting. I asked for one thing in the pregame, damnit!
• Before the Game on Twitter I said Asik might play better with stronger teammates around him.  He did.  I could almost call him average!
• 32 fouls in the game – and you know what?  The Pelicans deserved them.  They were bloody stupid over and over – hacking at guys, reaching for steals they had no chance at, grabbing guys 20 feet away from the basket.  It was a stupid fest.  I’m having trouble deciding between Ajinca (4 fouls in 9 minutes) and Cole (4 in 24, but most of them way out on the perimeter) for getting the Foul Ball award.
• Speaking of foul balls and Norris Cole – his shot is way off.  Yes, he hit some last year.  Historically, he can’t shoot, and I worried about it having been a fluke.  He was hot garbage tonight as he jacked five threes.
• The Pelicans won the rebound battle.  So I guess not all of these observations are bitter.

So, uh, sorry about the venting.  I’ll be in a better mood for the Pod.  Because, you know, there is no game before it.