4th March - New Orleans Pelicans @ Dallas Mavericks - 26-35

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Originally Posted by HartOfaPelican

Arguing with you is pointless if you’re going to be closed minded about it.

He has grown so much. He plays good D. Has length. Can shoot. Will only get better. He’s 22. With a terrible coach coaching the team.

Open your eyes.

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Man I’m not questioning his talent. He is an amazing player but makes horrible decisions. You can always find positives in someones game but the negatives are there also. He needs to work on his decision making point blank period. He makes a couple buckets then starts chucking shots. You’re right he is just a kid..and is about to get a fat paycheck he don't give af and it shows.

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Originally Posted by PelicanNation

Man I’m not questioning his talent. He is an amazing player but makes horrible decisions. You can always find positives in someones game but the negatives are there also. He needs to work on his decision making point blank period. He makes a couple buckets then starts chucking shots. You’re right he is just a kid..and is about to get a fat paycheck he don't give af and it shows.

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:hihi:

smh.. How do you argue with a take like that.

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Originally Posted by PELICANSFAN

Are you really complaining about Ball tonight? Wow! He was fantastic tonight.

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Agree. Least of our problems

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Originally Posted by PelicanNation

Man I’m not questioning his talent. He is an amazing player but makes horrible decisions. You can always find positives in someones game but the negatives are there also. He needs to work on his decision making point blank period. He makes a couple buckets then starts chucking shots. You’re right he is just a kid..and is about to get a fat paycheck he don't give af and it shows.

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Please explain how a 22 year old isn’t going to make mistakes!? Please explain that to me how you expect him to be perfect.

Will he continue to get better? Um... yes. Especially with a decent coach.

And please explain how you know he does not give AF!?

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Originally Posted by PELICANSFAN

Are you really complaining about Ball tonight? Wow! He was fantastic tonight.

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He wasn't fantastic at basic layups at crucial points in the game. They lost.

Yes I'm complaining and have every right to. Keep your pom poms! Thanks.

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Originally Posted by luckyman

He wasn't fantastic at basic layups at crucial points in the game. They lost.

Yes I'm complaining and have every right to. Keep your pom poms! Thanks.

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Happy forum tonight

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Originally Posted by Taker597

One of the big position that we need going into the off-season is an elite 5 with scoring ability to keep Zion on clean. I feel that move in of itself would make us lock at a playoff participate. Not contender.

We may not have the time to be patience with Jax.


We can always draft Wiseman. lol

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I couldn't agree with you more. A stretch five is a must. Marc Gasol could be a temporary patch. Meyers Leonard could play the stretch role too. As far as Jaxson is concerned, he is years (multiple) away from being just adequate.

How do you wait until 1:32 in overtime to bring in arguably your best player? The minute restriction on Zion has been lifted. Every player on the floor is tired in OT! I have tried to stay off the fire Gentry train but the lack of discipline and poor decision making at some point has to be a reflection of their coach and his system. It’s time for Gentry to go, I just don’t know if anyone else is out there worth going after.

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Originally Posted by BuzzmanD

How do you wait until 1:32 in overtime to bring in arguably your best player? The minute restriction on Zion has been lifted. Every player on the floor is tired in OT! I have tried to stay off the fire Gentry train but the lack of discipline and poor discussion making at some point has to be a reflection of their coach and his system. It’s time for Gentry to go, I just don’t know if anyone else is out there worth going after.

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I'm sure there are some great names in the college ranks.

With the talent already on the team its not going to take much. Anything but a headless coach with no structure.

Klutch spokesperson “no neck” is even mad at our losing on ESPN right now.

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Originally Posted by HartOfaPelican

Please explain how a 22 year old isn’t going to make mistakes!? Please explain that to me how you expect him to be perfect.

Will he continue to get better? Um... yes. Especially with a decent coach.

And please explain how you know he does not give AF!?

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Lol I understand your mindset. You want to have a positive attitude thinking about the distant future which might not even happen. We just pretty much dropped our chances to get in the playoffs and you want to talk about mistakes. I never said anyone was perfect but imperfect people still can make competent decisions.

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Originally Posted by PELICANSFAN

Sure it would if the officials would call them. They allowed KP and Kleber to mug Zion all night. Ingram was hit 2 or 3 times while shooting and Jrue, as usual, got hit numerous times with no call. Yet, on the other end, any ticky tack touch became a foul. If called evenly on both ends, we win in regulation.

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Exactly, that's what I'm saying.

There was a lot of bad stuff in this game. We all know that. Ingram went a little hero ball towards the end, sure. Ball missed some easy layups, sure. Bench played like garbage for 75% of the night, sure.

But the reality is that we had 55 points in the paint and 11 FTAs, in an overtime game.

We average 23.2 FTAs per game on the season.

We lost by 4. Even if we had shot 50% from the FT line, we should have had more than double the attempts we did, which would have resulted in another 6 points.

Egregiously bad reffing cost us this game.

Advanced Stats for Tonight
15 Minutes Minimum

Best TS%: Frank Jackson, 80.6%
Worst TS%: Nicolo Melli at 16.7%
Highest REB%: Derrick Favors, 19.4%
Highest AST%: Jrue Holiday, 23.1%

Highest Net Rating: Derrick Favors, +16.9
Lowest Net Rating: E'twaun Moore, -30.6

Most Deflections: Jrue and Lonzo, 4 each
Most Screen Assists: Zion Williamson, with 5
Most 2pt Contests: Favors with 6
Most 3pt Contests: Melli with 6
Most Boxouts: Favors with 8

To make things worse, I'm going to start cold press juicing this weekend and the instruction manual states that I have to announce my juicing at least twice a day on all message boards I frequent. Sorry guys. I have to get healthy.

I post some cool juicing recipes, though.

^ Off topic but you need to change your avatar. Shrink it by half and it still has the same effect at least. It takes up alot of space.




"Don't Panic" pic. forgot what it is called

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Originally Posted by msusousaphone

To make things worse, I'm going to start cold press juicing this weekend and the instruction manual states that I have to announce my juicing at least twice a day on all message boards I frequent. Sorry guys. I have to get healthy.

I post some cool juicing recipes, though.

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If it's not cold brew coffee I don't care. Get that juice outta here

With 408 total points now, Zion has reached 0.149 Baynes. It's incredible progress.

He has now moved up to 18th in total points among rookies, having passed Cam Johnson. He is now 12 points behind Jaxson Hayes, who is in 17th place with exactly 420 points.

His 24ppg average still sits at 17th in the league, just ahead of Pascal Siakam, Joel Embiid, CJ McCollum, Jayson Tatum, and D'Angelo Russell, and just behind Donovan Mitchell, Brandon Ingram, and Lebron James (Lebron, who is currently averaging at least 25ppg for his 16th consecutive season).

Zion has now played in 17 games. He has scored at least 20 points in 15 of them, and his current streak of 13 consecutive 20 point games not only extends the all-time record for a teenage (previously 9 games, by Carmelo Anthony) but it also ties Anthony Davis for the 2nd longest such streak in Pelicans history, and Joel Embiid+Donovan Mitchell for the longest rookie streak of 20pt games at any age since Blake Griffin's stretch of 14.

If Zion can get one more 20pt game, he will tie Blake for the longest consecutive streak of 20pt games by a rookie regardless of age since Jordan had 16 straight in 1985. Jordan also had another streak of 20pt games as a rookie that hit 23 straight, so that'll be Zion's next target if he can manage 16.

Breaking any rookie 20pt streak record after that is impossible for Zion; the next highest streak would be Connie Hawkins' 1967 rookie run of 37 straight. The Pelicans only have 20 games remaining, so even if Zion scores 20 in all of them, he can only hit 33 straight; 37 is out of reach.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

With 408 total points now, Zion has reached 0.149 Baynes. It's incredible progress.

He has now moved up to 18th in total points among rookies, having passed Cam Johnson. He is now 12 points behind Jaxson Hayes, who is in 17th place with exactly 420 points.

His 24ppg average still sits at 17th in the league, just ahead of Pascal Siakam, Joel Embiid, CJ McCollum, Jayson Tatum, and D'Angelo Russell, and just behind Donovan Mitchell, Brandon Ingram, and Lebron James (Lebron, who is currently averaging at least 25ppg for his 16th consecutive season).

Zion has now played in 17 games. He has scored at least 20 points in 15 of them, and his current streak of 13 consecutive 20 point games not only extends the all-time record for a teenage (previously 9 games, by Carmelo Anthony) but it also ties Anthony Davis for the 2nd longest such streak in Pelicans history, and Joel Embiid+Donovan Mitchell for the longest rookie streak of 20pt games at any age since Blake Griffin's stretch of 14.

If Zion can get one more 20pt game, he will tie Blake for the longest consecutive streak of 20pt games by a rookie regardless of age since Jordan had 16 straight in 1985. Jordan also had another streak of 20pt games as a rookie that hit 23 straight, so that'll be Zion's next target if he can manage 16.

Breaking any rookie 20pt streak record after that is impossible for Zion; the next highest streak would be Connie Hawkins' 1967 rookie run of 37 straight. The Pelicans only have 20 games remaining, so even if Zion scores 20 in all of them, he can only hit 33 straight; 37 is out of reach.

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He's just ridiculous. We're so lucky to have him. The fact that he's only 19... Woof. Just wild man.

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Originally Posted by luckyman

He wasn't fantastic at basic layups at crucial points in the game. They lost.

Yes I'm complaining and have every right to. Keep your pom poms! Thanks.

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Not pom poms. just reality. When someone plays like Ball did tonight and you whine about a missed layup, it shows a bias or lack of understanding of how he performed. Knowing you clearly understand the game, I can only conclude that you are just portraying a bias. I was not a fan of Ball when we traded for him, but have grown to really like his play. He does not seem comfortable with absorbing contact on drives so tries to avoid it. In doing so, it makes his shots there more difficult than they need to be. I am sure this will be worked on in the offseason (and may require him getting more comfortable getting to the line). But overall, yes, he played fantastic last night and was solid on defense as well.

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Originally Posted by luckyman

The man is a 6'6" guard. For him to be so terrible close to the rim is beyond sane reason.

How in the hell did he learn basketball??

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Is this a serious question? BBB home hoops academy of course.

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Originally Posted by PELICANSFAN

Not pom poms. just reality. When someone plays like Ball did tonight and you whine about a missed layup, it shows a bias or lack of understanding of how he performed. Knowing you clearly understand the game, I can only conclude that you are just portraying a bias. I was not a fan of Ball when we traded for him, but have grown to really like his play. He does not seem comfortable with absorbing contact on drives so tries to avoid it. In doing so, it makes his shots there more difficult than they need to be. I am sure this will be worked on in the offseason (and may require him getting more comfortable getting to the line). But overall, yes, he played fantastic last night and was solid on defense as well.

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Maybe you didn't watch the game close enough. But nobody is whining about some random missed layup. We are specifically addressing the point blank misses (plural) in crunch time, when they desperately needed a basket.

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Originally Posted by luckyman

Maybe you didn't watch the game close enough. But nobody is whining about some random missed layup. We are specifically addressing the point blank misses (plural) in crunch time, when they desperately needed a basket.

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I watched the game very closely. The layup was a tough shot given the way it was contested and he even hustled to tap it back, but it rolled off the rim. He did miss a running bank shot that I think he rushed that he should have made. Regardless, to discount what he did last night because of a couple missed shots is ridiculous. No player makes everything they shoot. He scored 25 and still shot about 50% on the night and over 60% from 3. He had 11 rebounds and 6 assists with only 2 turnovers and played very good defense. I just am not sure how you can focus on such a small population to be negative about. Last night was one of his better games of the year. Would it have been fair to bash Kristaps had Dallas lost given the point blank layup he missed late and the follow up slam dunk that he banged off the back rim?

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Originally Posted by PELICANSFAN

I watched the game very closely. The layup was a tough shot given the way it was contested and he even hustled to tap it back, but it rolled off the rim. He did miss a running bank shot that I think he rushed that he should have made. Regardless, to discount what he did last night because of a couple missed shots is ridiculous. No player makes everything they shoot. He scored 25 and still shot about 50% on the night and over 60% from 3. He had 11 rebounds and 6 assists with only 2 turnovers and played very good defense. I just am not sure how you can focus on such a small population to be negative about. Last night was one of his better games of the year. Would it have been fair to bash Kristaps had Dallas lost given the point blank layup he missed late and the follow up slam dunk that he banged off the back rim?

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The focus is on his lack of ability to finish at the rim consistently. Which as we all saw last night, can help the team to a nice L despite a good game otherwise...for 1.

And also the fact that it is perplexing as to WHY he's so bad near the rim...for 2.

This game was lost in the final minute of regulation.

With one minute left in the 4th here are our final possessions:

1:06: Derrick Favors defensive rebound - up one
0:59: Ingram misses 26 ft 3 pointer (elapsed time: 7 seconds)
0:36: Pelicans get ball at midcourt after time out (Curry hits 3 pointer) - down 2
0:29: Ball misses 26 ft 3 pointer (elapsed time: 7 seconds)
0:27: Favors get offensive rebound
0:19: Favors misses 22 ft 3 pointer (elapsed time 8 seconds)
0:10 Pelicans get ball at midcourt after time out (Curry hits one of 2 FT) - down 3
0:09 Pelicans get ball at midcourt after Hardaway Fouls
0:07 Melli hits 23 foot 3 to tie game.

So with a minute left in the game and Pels up by one, The Pels proceeded to take four threes in less than one minute. Nobody thought of posting up Williamson. Holiday didn't drive once to score. Dallas didn't beat the Pels, our design (or lack thereof) beat us.