Biggest Surprise From Game 1

[Mythrol]

I posed this question to MM last night and think it's an interesting topic. We talked so much about how we thought the rotations would be, who we thought would get playing time and at what position and then game 1 comes around and things we didn't expect happened.

So I ask you PR users, what were you most surprised at seeing last night?

For me I think it was Salmons getting the backup SF minutes after his awful preseason. I could also see people feeling Ajinca's lack of minutes (that was MM's) choice, the lack of minutes by Ryno, Jimmer getting as many minutes as he did and going 0-6, and Rivers hitting a 16ft jump shot (lol) as the biggest surprises.

I suppose you could also say AD's performance. He's no Drummond after all.

[BallSoHard]

My biggest surprise was Jrue. He was extremely rusty and did not have the ball in his hands to play make as much as i would have figured.

[UNO Gracias]

The misses layups were the biggest surprise. I mean you're 6'+, slam it in!

The minuet distribution wasn't a surprise as it's still early days coupled with Monty never knowing how to rotate players. I think a few weeks from now we will have a better handle on who gets what minuets, but not this early.

I like what Rivers did, and while his shooting was off I was surprised by Jimmers defense being better than expected.

[GeauxSaints53]

Gordon showed some flashes of his old explosiveness despite not putting up big numbers. Surprising for me because I didn't really see that in the preseason at all. That block he had on Ben Gordon was just outta nowhere for him.

[jrue_grit]

Squad rotation and offensive flow were a surprise. But for me I was really excited to see how many shots our bigs affected. This front court is going to be a force.

[Spaniard]

Eric Gordon really playing a role, hustling for rebounds, blocking shots. If he's willing to play his role, that will go a long way.

Salmons over Babbitt was shocking.

Otherwise just the free throws. We are so much better than that, game should have been put away early.

[MichaelMcNamara]

Biggest surprise for me was that we couldn't hit a free throw. I mean, if we shoot average rates from 3 and the line last night, we score 118 points.

[speedyG]

I wasn't that surprised by much. Asik was even better than expected, Jrue didn't influence the game too much offensively.

I'm still surprised about Salmons- that we signed him at all, paid him 2 mil, and that he's getting any playing time

[Pelicanned]

Biggest surprise was Salmons playing so much...then again the guy seems to find playing time no matter how much he stinks on every team he's been on.

Didn't surprise me that Jimmer played good defense. He's been playing that way for a couple years now, but I'm sure it surprised some who only read uninformed bloggers. I thought he was a big part of the 3rd quarter run, when he was getting deflections and forcing bad shots. His shooting was cold, but that's not going last long nor happen too often. Everyone knows he can score. I thought he did a good job of trying to setup people for plays when his shot wasn't going down.

Oh and both Rivers and Jimmer had zero turnovers, that was a pleasant surprise.

[PolishFan]

the moments when gordon played good D, the fact that for the first 6 minutes or so he didn't even touched the ball, the fact that ryno was picked the player of the game

[DroopyDawg]

Biggest surprise for me was that we couldn't hit a free throw. I mean, if we shoot average rates from 3 and the line last night, we score 118 points.

You beat me to it. At one point... Joel Myer said we were 3 fro 14. Are you kidding me? That's ridiculous. EVERYBODY was missing. Even Ryno. it was just bad.

We missed a ton of layups too, but the one thing that I liked was that we kept our turnovers at a minimum. I don't know how many we turnovers we finished with, but at one point in the 4th quarter we only had 6. I thought that was solid.

[HornetGuru]

Biggest surprise for me was that we couldn't hit a free throw. I mean, if we shoot average rates from 3 and the line last night, we score 118 points.

What about jammer getting in without blowing them out?

[RaisingTheBar]

Biggest surprise for me was free throw shooting and Asik. I already knew what he would bring defensively and rebounding wise. But when the whole team was struggling out of the gate (eventually picking it up in the 2nd half) Asik was not. He was a man amongst boys and had a double double not long into the 2nd quarter! I know many thought Asik wouldn't average a double double this season, I was one of them. Not because of the rebounds but because of the points. But he isn't Tyson Chandler, he has an underrated offensive game and I can see him hovering around 10ppg for the rest of the year.

[PolishFan]

Biggest surprise for me was free throw shooting and Asik. I already knew what he would bring defensively and rebounding wise. But when the whole team was struggling out of the gate (eventually picking it up in the 2nd half) Asik was not. He was a man amongst boys and had a double double not long into the 2nd quarter! I know many thought Asik wouldn't average a double double this season, I was one of them. Not because of the rebounds but because of the points. But he isn't Tyson Chandler, he has an underrated offensive game and I can see him hovering around 10ppg for the rest of the year.

I was impressed with Asik too

[MichaelMcNamara]

What about jammer getting in without blowing them out?

Yeah, I wrote a post on that and how Monty threw us off the scent. But biggest surprise? No. I would have believed you if you would have told me before the game that Jimmer played. I would't have believed you if you told me we were that bad from the FT line. Not this team.

[PELICANSFAN]

Shooting less than 50% from the line is embarrassing. I could not believe how bad it was. As MM said, had we hit just a normal FT rate, we put them away early with a large blow out.

[AD23nEG10]

Yeah, I wrote a post on that and how Monty threw us off the scent. But biggest surprise? No. I would have believed you if you would have told me before the game that Jimmer played. I would't have believed you if you told me we were that bad from the FT line. Not this team.

You think Monty always planned on using Jimmer with Austin or just situational because Luke Ridnour was their PG? I feel like a more explosive backup PG and it may have been a different story

[BP225]

Asik's perfect fit was the biggest surprise, and I say that as someone who's been beating the "Asik's a perfect fit" drum. If this team stays healthy they will make some noise for sure.

[Mythrol]

One thing that was surprising to me that one person touched on slightly was the lack of turnovers we gave up this game. We only gave up 9 which is well below our average last season of 13. And that's after adding Asik who always gets a few TOs a game because of battling under the rim for rebounds. Our guards combined for only 5.

[Pelicanned]

Off-topic, but this team has so many weapons. Normally a team has 2 or 3 guys who do the bulk of the scoring, and maybe 1 guy who plays solid D. This team has Davis, Asik, Ryno, Tyreke, Jimmer and Babbit who can really score in bunches. I can't think of another team that has so many offensive guns. Then on defense you've got both Davis and Asik who are shot blocking / rebounding machines. Last night I felt like I was watching a volleyball match on the defensive end with the ball getting swatted around so much.

Yeah, we were playing a rebuilding Orlando team last night, but this team has got me so excited for what can happen this season. It's nice to have so many options because when one guy is cold (Jimmer), another guy can easily step up and take his place on offense (Ryno). Other teams have got to be seeing this image when the Pels are heating up:

[ReedSpeed]

Biggest surprise for me had nothing to do with the team. I knew we were going to win. But the officiating wasn't terrible. I can't remember watching an nba game where the officiating didn't suck, especially a pelicans/hornets game. Every time we went for a steal or block I thought for sure a whistle was coming. Seems like they were letting them play and calling it down the middle. The only dumb call I can recall was Jimmer's block. Dont know if it was this particular crew, or the nba is relaxing on the amount of fouls to speed the game up, but it was refreshing and I hope it continues.

[eballa1]

Biggest surprise for me was that we couldn't hit a free throw. I mean, if we shoot average rates from 3 and the line last night, we score 118 points.

I agree. Just the free throws and other misses. Tyreke and Jrue especially with the missed layups. I know we saw it with Tyreke last year too. He gets to the goal, the angles he has are tough a lot of times, but on TV is just looks like missed layups.

[luigi modelo]

My biggest surprise was that I knew that we would blow them out in the second half, even after all of the missed free throws and overall rustiness. I don't know if in my entire time as a fan of this team that I have ever felt like that. Even in our best stretches in the past, I never felt like we were that superior to any team. Even when we were better in the past, we would somehow play down a level, grind one out, or overachieve a little bit and beat a better team. Yesterday, I envisioned us being superior to many teams and actually playing to our capabilities and being totally in control of games by the 4th quarter; I was just sitting there and looking at all of our weapons and was overwhelmed with excitement about the possibilities.

[Eman5805]

It was the strangest thing how the bad FT shooting snowballed into a team wide problem.

[jrue_grit]

sorry to divert attention, but I just noticed the 76ers are playing a laughable Pacers squad tonight. Potential to be the worst game we've seen in a long time.