December 28th - New Orleans Pelicans VS Dallas Mavericks - 15-20
Gotta win this one, it's very important for us. Luckily, we're at home, which helps a lot. We're playing the same team we lost to a few nights ago, the Dallas Mavericks, and as a result I'm not going to bother listing all of their stats and doing an analysis, because it's the same team and it hasn't been long enough for those things to have changed appreciably. Instead, I'm going to mention a few things we need to take from last game and change this game.
First: DeAndre Jordan shot 7/7 from the field, had 20 points and 12 rebounds. The good news is that only one of his rebounds was offensive: the bad news is that you can't let DJ drop 20+ on you. He isn't a creative player, he doesn't have dribble moves, he can't take anyone off the dribble, he's not massively fast, and he can't really create for himself. There is no reason for him to be scoring a lot. When he does, it's a sign that he's been let off the hook on the defensive end: that means tonight, someone needs to actually stick to him.
Secondly: AD needs to shoot less threes. I get that he was trying to expand his game over the summer and he was shooting them fairly well over the first 20 games of the season, but he's not shooting them very well anymore. I also understand that part of the reason he's taking them a lot, especially late in games, is because he's tired from playing big minutes earlier in the game, and having to do so much on both ends. I get that: I'm not resenting him. All I'm saying is that if he's about to take a 25 foot three with 20 seconds left on the shot clock, maybe try not doing that.
Thirdly: There needs to be some more scoring from other guys. I get that this is like banging on the same drum every game without Niko and Payton, but we got 39 points total from everyone not names Anthony, Jrue, and Julius. That's just not good enough at all. Outside of the big three active players, we had one player in double digits. Moore didn't hit a single three. Solo had 3 points. That's just not good enough. You cannot win games like that. Dallas, by contrast, had two different players off the bench drop 16+. 6 players in double figures instead of 3.
Fourthly: Rebounding, guys? We got outrebounded 46-39, and that includes being outrebounded on both ends of the floor. No single stat tells you the whole story of a game, sure, but rebounds are a fair way to make a quick and dirty judgement: if you got outrebounded by twenty boards, you almost certainly lost. We have to keep things closer tonight, and preferably take the lead- at least on the offensive boards.
Fifthly: Shot selection. Now, I know every team plays defense differently, and therefore you can't just compare shots taken against one team to another as if it's a one to one comparison, but it can be helpful to see what kind of shots are being taken in wins in comparison to losses. If you look at our last win, a statement game against OKC, we took a total of 9 shots in the midrange (outside of the paint but inside of the arc). Against Dallas last game, we took 15. Just a little something to think about: obviously if you get the open midrange and you know you can hit that, take it, but you shouldn't just settle for it when the alternative of a run to the rim is right there.
Okay so that's about all I have to say in regards to that. Hopefully the team has been thinking about last game as much as I have, and has a few ideas of their own about what to do this time around. We need to get this win tonight, and stop the losing streak. Can't enter January having not won anything since the 12th.
Let's go, #DoItBig.
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Originally Posted by AUSSIE_PELICAN
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