The New Orleans Pelicans (30-49) finally defeated the Los Angeles Lakers (16-63) in the third and final attempt this season. The 110-102 win was more complete than an 8-point differential may typically indicate. The Pelicans closed the gap on the Lakers at the end of the first to just 3, but barreled over the California team for the next two quarters. The Lakers did come back a but in the fourth, but they never threatened. With the Pelicans playing in a back-to-back tomorrow, they saved some energy, even though they could not save the minutes.

The Pelicans, though with only 9 players, and with just 1 of their highly paid players, who happens to be the one with the least offense, available, managed to gin up some good offense. Of their made shots, 29 were assisted, and this fraction was higher at some points in the game. The Pelicans also shot over 50% in the game, which says more about the defense of the Lakers than it does against the Pelicans. Still, this makes the point about the assists even more strongly. Tim Frazier, normally one to put up points while being a good passer, was responsible for 12 of those assists. No one else had more than 4, and only Hamilton had none.

It goes to show just how starved the team was for ball movement for most of the season. Again, when a guy like Tim Frazier is this much of a catalyst on your team, it’s because the team was so deprived, along with their audience, that the contrast is simply that strong. This is partially a reflection of the players on the bench who did not pass as often or as correctly as they should have, but it is also a reflection of the primary target of those passes being on the bench, that is, Anthony Davis. The mandate to feed Davis constrains passers and passing while indicating to the defense just what is going on. The team should get Davis the ball more than anyone else, but that needs to come when the defense gives it or when Davis forces it. At least until some more shooters are on the team, Davis can’t be force fed each game.

At any rate, this is not a problem in the remaining 3 games.

This was also Kobe Bryant’s last game in New Orleans. I saw Kobe play many games, and while nice to see him, I can see that it’s just time to go. He’s a polarizing guy, but he was a great player, and it was nice to see him give what little he could to the fans, his team, and the NBA.

The Pelicans play again tonight, hosting the Phoenix Suns, also a winning-impaired team. The game is at 6 pm CT (UTC -5) and can be found on Fox Sports New Orleans and the Pelicans Radio Network, 99.5 FM locally.

For Kobe, T. S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men:

Mistah Kurtz—he dead.

A penny for the Old Guy

I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.

Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer—

Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom

III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.

IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.

V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.