2nd February - New Orleans Pelicans @ Houston Rockets - 20-29

[Pelicanidae]

End of game advanced stats time. Let's see what they say. As always, minimum 15 minutes played to qualify.

Best Net Rating: Favors, at +16.7. Then Zion, at +6.9. Nobody else had a positive net rating.
Worst Net Rating: Josh Hart, -30.8.

Best TS%: Lonzo Ball, 63.5%. Then Hart.
Worst TS%: Jrue, at 35.9%, then Ingram at 57.6% (57.6% is actually still pretty solid)
Highest AST%: Lonzo, 30%.
Highest REB%: Favors, 16.7%

Most Deflections: Zion, with 2.
Most Screen Assists: Zion, with 2.
Most 2pt Contests: Lonzo, with 4, tied with Hart.
Most 3pt Contests: Ingram, with 7, then Zion, with 5
Most boxouts: Hart and Favors tied with 3 each.

Bad night. The wrong names all over the place. You don't want Jrue, who leads the league in deflections, beaten out by someone else who only gets 2. You don't want your guards leading in 2pt contests and boxouts. You don't want your two leading scorers with the lowest TS%. Just not great.

[As I See It]

Silver Lining?

We're one game closer to seeing NAW on the court.

[Taker597]

Gentry: Zion can’t go 4 mins without touching the ball ever again. That’s on me. ... And if we can’t get it to him, then we need other people in the game. That’s on me too.

— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) February 2, 2020

Yes it is.

I feel like this is the 1st time all season Gentry hold himself accountable and took the blame.

[HartOfaPelican]

Gentry: Zion can’t go 4 mins without touching the ball ever again. That’s on me. ... And if we can’t get it to him, then we need other people in the game. That’s on me too.

— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) February 2, 2020

Yes it is.

Yeah... but it’s the same story over and over. Enough is enough. Time to fire him.

[Pelicanidae]

On a more positive note, Zion totalled 21/10 tonight, making it his 2nd career double double. He has now scored at least 20 points in 3 of his 6 career games, and has still shot better than 50% in every game he's played.

With a total of 117 points, Zion now registers at 0.0435 on the Baynes scale.

After shooting 37.5% from the FT line in his first 3 games (6/16), Zion has now shot 68.8% over his last 3 (11/16). Good stuff.

Zion's games so far:

22/7/3 on 8/11 shooting (72.7%)
15/6 on 7/9 shooting (77.8%)
21/11/2 on 9/16 shooting (56.3%)
14/9/1 on 7/13 shooting (53.8%)
24/6/3 on 9/15 shooting (60.0%)
21/10/1 on 8/14 shooting (57.1%)

That makes his averages so far: 19.5 points, 8.2 rebounds, 1.5 assists, on 48/78 shooting: that's 61.5%FG.

[pelicanchamp]

They need to really watch it with the turnovers. That’s not good. Also, Favors should have gotten more time. He did well while in there. They need to give Zion the ball and let him get more shots. He can improve his FT percentage and really do some damage.


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[kinglio21093]

We deserved to lose that game. We shot the ball fairly well outside of the 4th, but my god what a disaster of a basketball game that was.

[Speakthetruth]

Gentry postgame said its on him zion didnt touch the ball in the last 4 minutes and that it wont happen again. Also said the rotations was on him too. Damn right its on you been a pro coach for how long bro? inexcusable

Blah you cant believe him

[djrnno]

You can’t win at home much less on the road with 20+ turnovers and missing HUGE free throws down the stretch. Horrible

Exactly , 20+ STUPID TO's multiple missed FT's at crunch time BLOWN wide open shots but it's AG's fault. AG is not by far my favorite HC but this one is on PLAYERS

[sterlr]

Yeah... but it’s the same story over and over. Enough is enough. Time to fire him.

True, reminds me of Payton (Saints) saying we need run the ball more but then the very next game we throw for 40+ times and lose. I understand that's our offense but you need to adjust to what is working...it's called situational basketball. That's what good coaches do... alas Gentry is not good coach.

[Pelicanidae]

This game makes me want to draft Killian Tillie some more.

[luckyman]

When things go badly, its usually not just one thing. Its usually a cluster.

That bad gameplan, bad rotations, not trying Okafor, not getting the ball to Zion in the 4th, Jrue not showing up once again (except for his lazy turnovers), all the other lazy unforced turnovers, and all the missed shots at the rim.

It took all of that to lose by 7 in a VERY winnable game.

[Wowowowow]

First game all season I thought there was obvious selfish play. Almost a need to prove something.

This week is going to separate natural winners from those who are still prone to habits and selfish ways leading to being losers.

In a way I’m glad this happened so Griffin and Langdon can evaluate them properly without this kumbaya haze we’ve been in.

Also a terribly coached game by Gentry.

[As I See It]

I wished we still had Elfrid Payton.

In fact. I would trade Holiday right now to the Knicks for Elfrid and their 2020 # 1 yesterday if I could.

[ragincaucasian]

Just looking over tonight's shot charts... man

Lonzo: One shot total inside the arc.
Ingram: 5/10 in the first half, 5/13 in the second; 0/4 in the 4th quarter: no shots at the rim.
Jrue: 5/8 inside of 8 feet. 0/6 outside of it.
Melli: 0 shots inside of 12 feet.

And there is absolutely no excuse for this.

This is the first game since 1963(?) where nobody who played for an NBA team was 6'6 or taller. The Rockets were venerable as hell.

Yet we did not attack that weakness. We shot dumb assed threes once again.

A coach with a normal brain says "Guys, attack the paint every time down the court. We have the advantage."

But we have AG. So...

Like......did they not watch tape of THE LAST GAME THAT THEY PLAYED...where they blew out the opposing team from attacking the paint?

[Pelicanidae]

And there is absolutely no excuse for this.

This is the first game since 1963(?) where nobody who played for an NBA team was 6'6 or taller. The Rockets were venerable as hell.

Yet we did not attack that weakness. We shot dumb assed threes once again.

A coach with a normal brain says "Guys, attack the paint every time down the court. We have the advantage."

But we have AG. So...

Like......did they not watch tape of THE LAST GAME THAT THEY PLAYED...where they blew out the opposing team from attacking the paint?

Well, 2nd game since 1962: the first was the last Rockets game. They've now done it twice.

But yep. Bad. It makes no sense. Our shot selection was dodgy, and it's also true that we didn't get nearly as many shots up as we should have due to the overwhelmingly poor turnovers. 3 members of the starting lineup (Jrue, Ingram, Lonzo) combined for 12 turnovers. There were 18 turnovers from the starting 5 alone. That's unacceptable.

[Pelicanidae]

Since 2012, three players have recorded two 20-point, 10-rebound games in their first six career #NBA games - Anthony Davis, DeAndre Ayton and Zion Williamson.

— Pelicans PR (@PelicansPR) February 2, 2020

[PaKwAn]

Zion has such an amazing talent! He is already doing stuff like these despite still having a lot of flaws that he can work on in the future (conditioning, weight, handles,defensive awareness etc..) right now, you can even see that this kid is not even playing at a 100% yet he is doing stuff a lot of players wish they can do... you can see how he impacts the game and plays within the flow...

Im actually glad that they didn't sit him out this year because it gives griff an idea that Zion really is the real deal and that he can build the team through zion with players that fit well with him.

[neworleanshoo]

not particularly bothered by this loss because the ball just doesn't fall sometimes (and we have a top-notch offense)... but what does bother me is why we didn't put the ball in Zion's hands. If nobody else can shoot - why not put in the hands of the dude who is utterly incapable of shooting below 50%?

[neworleanshoo]

Zion took 1 shot in the final 11 minutes.

That's inexcusable for a guy who was scoring so well all game up until that point. Team didn't look for him at all, in any situation.

exactly right.

[pelicanchamp]

1. We need to have Zion shooting at least 17-18 shots per game. He has a very high FG%

2. We need to cut down on turnovers. It’s a problem. This can improve over time.

3. We need to keep attacking the basket and playing a very physical kind of basketball. This means Ingram, Zion, Hart Favors, and Jrue need to attack.

4. Give Favors a little more playing time in these critical games.


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[Wecandothis]

They fell in love with the 3. Jrue was horrible,Ingram should have been driving easily to the rim Lonzo was afraid to shoot.The one guy who was on Zion couldn't get the ball. Very disappointing this was a winnable game.

[Biasvasospasm]

They need to be more creative with how they involve Zion. Everything was a postup or a lob in transition. Postups are just too risky when a team knows they are coming and are going to be fronting, playing passing lanes, flying in with the early double and swiping at the ball. Tucker is probably one of the tougher guys for Zion to drive on, but maybe run him off a screen to get him the ball in space and drive to the rim, or have him fake a DHO and drive. Just too little ball and player movement in the 4th.

[Pelicanidae]

They fell in love with the 3. Jrue was horrible,Ingram should have been driving easily to the rim Lonzo was afraid to shoot.The one guy who was on Zion couldn't get the ball. Very disappointing this was a winnable game.

Nah Lonzo was, as always, very willing to shoot. What he's afraid to do is drive. A terminal problem with his game that remains his Achilles heel. When he's driving, his value goes up. When he's not, it drops. And more often than not, he refuses to do it. During his best stretches this year, he's been willing to commit to driving.

[Taker597]

Nah Lonzo was, as always, very willing to shoot. What he's afraid to do is drive. A terminal problem with his game that remains his Achilles heel. When he's driving, his value goes up. When he's not, it drops. And more often than not, he refuses to do it. During his best stretches this year, he's been willing to commit to driving.

I feel like he has improved immensely in that department.