Western Playoffs Round 2 - New Orleans Pelicans @ Golden State Warriors- Game One

[N.O.Bronco]

I feel if this series goes badly. We are gonna panic and give Boogie a 5 year Max.

If this series goes badly it will be bad for everyone. And I could see that happening. Boogie's agent already has to be quietly smiling at the leverage this may give him.

Giving the Warriors a tough series IMO is the key to having a maximally successful offseason.

IMO it's the difference between ring-hunting veterans and/or one or two prime players thinking Pelicans or thinking elsewhere. Getting that Nick Young/David West type that gives you cheap, hungry, positive veteran depth. Much easier to do if you can show everyone you belong and weren't a flash in the pan.

The Pels key has to be getting that perception of contender in the minds of the league's zeitgeist.

[Thepeelsessions]

How can this team match up with GS for game two? Should the starting five be.....?

Okafor
AD
Niko
Jrue
Rondo

I just think they the size disadvantage of having E'twaun in there against the Warriors starters is huge. Solo is a waste. He SHOULD be in there to match up with KD, but that'd be a disaster. Could Emeka defend Green with AD defending KD?

[luckyman]

The main problem was on the offensive end, they resorted to iso ball with AD or chucking 3s. That led to either fast break points or mismatches on D. They had 19 assists in the 1st half, mainly in that 1st quarter, then only had 5 more the rest of the game.

AD is still not good enough to just go iso. That's where Cousins is better and where he is sorely missed. On the other side they have KD who can go iso on anybody.

Now Holiday is also good at it when he doesn't play like a deer in headlights. Which is why he needs to be taking a minimum 20 shots per game for them to have a chance.

[N.O.Bronco]

I worried about the KD problem before this series and I honestly don't have a good answer. Even if we had Cousins.

Our best hope was that Solo's shooting improved and he got back to last season form defensively. Neither of those things has happened. So now we are in a bind. If you do the Okafor thing you run into that problem the Pels had a couple years ago where teams just load up defenders on Jrue and AD and dare everyone else to beat them.

In a world with Cousins you might try something really unorthodox and put AD on Durant for stretches with both Niko and Cousins. Allowing you to have AD and Niko to get back defensively in transition as Cousins would no doubt struggle to do, and to keep enough rebounding in place to not get killed on the offensive glass without Davis in there.

This team sorely needs a credible wing defender that has enough size and length to not get abused by Durant. As is you are stuck with Niko trying to guard against KD's lateral quickness and dragging our second best rebounder away from the basket, or he gets switched onto anyone else and it either sucks away our rebounding(like in the case of AD) or he can just shoot over them(Moore, Rondo, Jrue).

[Taker597]

Should we keep running or do we slow the pace down?

I feel like Warrior wore us down quick when we try to run with them. But.. We were getting touch fouls like crazy would cause any team to back off and knock us out of rhythm.

[Pelicanidae]

I worried about the KD problem before this series and I honestly don't have a good answer. Even if we had Cousins.

Our best hope was that Solo's shooting improved and he got back to last season form defensively. Neither of those things has happened. So now we are in a bind. If you do the Okafor thing you run into that problem the Pels had a couple years ago where teams just load up defenders on Jrue and AD and dare everyone else to beat them.

In a world with Cousins you might try something really unorthodox and put AD on Durant for stretches with both Niko and Cousins. Allowing you to have AD and Niko to get back defensively in transition as Cousins would no doubt struggle to do, and to keep enough rebounding in place to not get killed on the offensive glass without Davis in there.

This team sorely needs a credible wing defender that has enough size and length to not get abused by Durant. As is you are stuck with Niko trying to guard against KD's lateral quickness and dragging our second best rebounder away from the basket, or he gets switched onto anyone else and it either sucks away our rebounding(like in the case of AD) or he can just shoot over them(Moore, Rondo, Jrue).

The only team that has a real go to answer for KD is San Antonio. And their answer has been out all year.

[bahmamamba]

I mean if we're gonna continue to get these dumb ****** touch fouls like it's the first week of a new season why not make them count I mean screw it right? We're obviously not allowed to play defence against the nbas golden goose

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[msusousaphone]

Don't let the loss stop your game day thread starting, Pelicanidae. You do you.

Go big or stay at home on another message board. Lol

[Pelicanidae]

Don't let the loss stop your game day thread starting, Pelicanidae. You do you.

Go big or stay at home on another message board. Lol

I'm gonna do it. My win loss ratio seems to be pretty solid so I'm gonna keep it going until I'm evidently not helping

[Taker597]

What's the worst that can happen? They get Curry back and still guided the Finals by the ref? I rather the team go down fighting and make this clown show more apparent.

[P_B_&_G]

This team sorely needs a credible wing defender that has enough size and length to not get abused by Durant. As is you are stuck with Niko trying to guard against KD's lateral quickness and dragging our second best rebounder away from the basket, or he gets switched onto anyone else and it either sucks away our rebounding(like in the case of AD) or he can just shoot over them(Moore, Rondo, Jrue).

Paging PG13, paging PG13, New Orleans is a great basketball destination! LOL

[P_B_&_G]

I'm gonna do it. My win loss ratio seems to be pretty solid so I'm gonna keep it going until I'm evidently not helping

i seem to only be able to start them when we are tanking, so I will refrain!

[P_B_&_G]

What's the worst that can happen? They get Curry back and still guided the Finals by the ref? I rather the team go down fighting and make this clown show more apparent.

We should take an approach similar to Portland in game 4 and just beat the crap out of them. Except you do it now and the entire series instead of a last ditch effort. hey, if they are going to call every little tap you might as well make it count.

[msusousaphone]

Yeah. I am fine with losing. GSW overwhelming us without Boogie is nothing to be sad about. I can't stand how that went down Saturday, though. It's so annoying too that this is so common in the NBA that no one even bats an eye at it. In the NFL, they take the ref and the league over the coals for a week. This is the league where someone was actually arrested for fixing games. You'd think they'd care more.

[Pelicanidae]

Yeah. I am fine with losing. GSW overwhelming us without Boogie is nothing to be sad about. I can't stand how that went down Saturday, though. It's so annoying too that this is so common in the NBA that no one even bats an eye at it. In the NFL, they take the ref and the league over the coals for a week. This is the league where someone was actually arrested for fixing games. You'd think they'd care more.

Exactly.

This is the NBA, we all know that there are teams which are favoured, there are players which are given the benefit of the doubt, and there are narratives that they like to uphold. We don't have one of those narratives, we aren't in favour (we have no past to have earned any favour with), and for some reason none of our players are given the respect they're due.

So in a series like this, you don't walk in expecting to win. You know you're capable of it, but you understand what you're up against. That doesn't mean we accept being totally washed like game one. There's no way the guys can walk into game three at home with any pride if they let that happen again. A loss is a loss, but that kind of loss? Unacceptable.