December 19th - New Orleans Pelicans vs Memphis Grizzlies - 16-11

[As I See It]

Zion had three rebounds. I know foul trouble was a factor, and maybe illness was a factor, but come one. I saw him have a good rebounding half in the last game (or the one before that I forget). So I know when his energy level is up he can do it. But there has been too many games where his energy level has sucked. I’m tired of watching him flat footed under the basket.

He's a spectator on defense...always has been. That's why Willie has gone offense-defense with him late in some recent games. Really only plays one side of the court and everyone knows it (including his # 1 jock supporter).

[WhyHornetsWhy]

Actually look up Donaghy. He didn't individually bet on games.

He gave bettors inside knowledge on games he didn't even officiate, because he knew how those games were being called.

He has openly said that the NBA would instruct them to call certain players differently than others, and that played into his rigging of games.

He didn't just individually bet, he was part of a large, ongoing game-rigging scheme with other refs for years. You think he was the only one?

Oh…then my mistake.

[Freyfamilyreuni]

Can’t blame him for this one. What do you tell your team when they can’t play defense or get fouls called for them? I don’t like Willie at all, but this right here was a very sad situation for any man to have to endure. He cares about his team and to watch them get battered by a referee to feed a script will really sting.

Sorry, he should have sat Zion for extended periods in the 4th and play Dyson to try and cool down Morant. He was their only real scoring option and we had no one on the court that could check him.

[WhyHornetsWhy]

Regardless, we still gave up 24 points lead… not excusable at all

[b_l_p]

I BEEN TOLD YALL WE LOVE GETTING OUR ********** PUSHED IN!! POVERTY PELS 4EVER

[Freyfamilyreuni]

He's a spectator on defense...always has been. That's why Willie has gone offense-defense with him late in some recent games. Really only plays one side of the court and everyone knows it (including his # 1 jock supporter).

He certainly has defensive limitations, he always will. Rebounding is purely effort though. His activity this year is much lower than this time last year. I assume that his weight is a factor.

[As I See It]

He certainly has defensive limitations, he always will. Rebounding is purely effort though. His activity this year is much lower than this time last year. I assume that his weight is a factor.

Agree with every word of your post (especially what I highlighted)

[Fedupfan]

Sorry, he should have sat Zion for extended periods in the 4th and play Dyson to try and cool down Morant. He was their only real scoring option and we had no one on the court that could check him.

I mean yeah you can blame him but what good is it. He’s not a good coach.

[WhyHornetsWhy]

So. Guys.

Where do we go from here?

Need some advice.

This game really made me sad

[Fedupfan]

So. Guys.

Where do we go from here?

Need some advice.

This game really made me sad

To mediocrity where we will always be under Willie Green. They have the roster and now they need the coach. A whole lot of their losing is the way this guy manages rotations and reads the game. He can’t adjust on the fly at all. He makes sporadic substitutions and waits way too long to call timeouts. Memphis just seemed to adjust at halftime and Willie can’t do that. This team has now blown 7 double digit leads this year. That’s extremely bad. It screams that when a team adjusts, Willie can’t.

[WhyHornetsWhy]

To mediocrity where we will always be under Willie Green. They have the roster and now they need the coach.

Who would you want as the HC?

[Fedupfan]

Who would you want as the HC?

I’d rather Borrego than Green. I really think Borrego would have them with 20 plus wins right now.
It’s the really simple things that Borrego did in the game he coached, that Green hasn’t done since he been here. Need to take the substitution authority and lineup management out of Greens hands. He just needs to be an assistant. I mean it’s non sense. Any other coach would have doubled Ja or at least taken the ball out his hands. They Would have definitely adjusted something, but we watched the same thing over and over for 20 straight minutes and Willie did absolutely nothing.

[donato]

Treat Tucker as an expiring, take a wait and see approach on Olynyk. I'm sure the Jazz would do a great job flipping CJ. Fine, whatever.

[Fedupfan]

Treat Tucker as an expiring, take a wait and see approach on Olynyk. I'm sure the Jazz would do a great job flipping CJ. Fine, whatever.

This one has us all hurting cause it’s exhausting. I know.

[Creative]

Hahahaha LOL - typical Pelicans collapse. We should win by +20 but We lose by 2 points

[Mrakar]

So, the refs killed us obviously and we couldn't do anything about that. Herb didn't even try to be more agressive on that last play because he knew they will blow the whistle for anything.
That said:

- we lost 24 point lead and its not the first time. It is happening over and over again, and we have to put the blame on Willie
- our rebounding suck, it is just pure effort. Most blame should be on Zion but even when he was on the bench we couldn't secure rebounds and we didn't fight for loose balls
- we could have easily went for 2 for 1 at the end, yes it wasn't a lot of time, but letting the clock tick and attack in last 4 seconds isnt a better option. We could use those 4 seconds and have opportunity for one more shot, that is also on Willie

[As I See It]

Of our 12 losses (so far) we gave up a double digit lead seven times. It ain't because we are playing:

DEFENSE...DEFENSE...DEFENSE!!!

[Mrakar]

And btw. why the ******** didn't we get the ball out of Ja's hands? I would rather have Santi Aldama shot wide open three then let Ja attack the paint with the kind of whistle they got? That is also on Willie...

[fullcourtpress]

Both of his threes were wide freaking open. He should have taken those shots. Unfortunately he got the heeby jeebies.

You have a point, but our best two player's strengths are taking it to the rim (zion) and taking it to his spot (Ingram) and both of these scenarios could very well end up with a foul being called.
Memphis didn't come down and chuck it up cause they would have missed also

[13 - 3]

The game is not rigged. The Pelicans choked. 7th time this happened. Learn to finish games. Otherwise you got no chance in playoffs.

[PaKwAn]

Treat Tucker as an expiring, take a wait and see approach on Olynyk. I'm sure the Jazz would do a great job flipping CJ. Fine, whatever.

Lauri alone would cost teams 1 good young prospect and at least 2 1st for himself..adding in Kessler and a serviceable big in Olynyk would cost us more. Cj and larry are negative value and kira is looking like an expiring contract right now.

[NOEngineer]

The game is not rigged. The Pelicans choked. 7th time this happened. Learn to finish games. Otherwise you got no chance in playoffs.

Both can be true.... The game was 90% tilted toward Memphis by the Refs, and we choked the other 10%. Zion, Herb, Trey and Jonas could not buy a whistle in the 2nd half for contact many times harder than what Morant was being sent to the line over and over. Only Ingram was given reasonable treatment. We basically got one bad call in our favor on Byombo, but half a dozen bad calls in theirs, not counting 3 of the 4 quick ones at the start of the game to "set the tone" and sit Zion. The later one on Herb where Bane slipped on his one-man break was particularly ridiculous. Both challenges should have been upheld, but you can't challenge 6 bad calls....

As for the choking, we fumbled a number of passes, CJ badly missed a couple of 3s, and we missed a number of layups. Once the pattern of ref bias is established for the game, it's hard to be at your best. I have to hand it to Ingram who was awesome in the 2nd half.

[sterlr]

And of course.

You know, I said in the OP I would be mad if we lost this game. I am mad. But only about 50% of that irritation is pointed at the players.

The other 50% is going to the refs. Pathetic. They think we can't tell when they're doing it on purpose.

- Zion with 2 fouls in the first 2 minutes, both BS fouls. The minute he comes back in in the 2nd quarter, another BS foul to sit him again.
- BI gets fouled by JJJ about 40 times in the 4th quarter, no whistle at all.
- Herb gets called for a foul because someone fell down within 5 feet of him.
- JV almost fouled out despite playing entirely conservative defense.

What a joke. Trash officiating.

The issue is not us knowing but no one can do anything about it. Rigging sucks. Wish we can sue the NFL and NBA over fixing games.

[13 - 3]

Ja Morant is everything we wanted from Zion. We have yet to see that from Zion.

[6warddude]

we need to get someone in here that likes to rebound....jonas need help real bad...

cj was cooking then we went away from him...i honestly believe that cj forced those 2 wild shots in the 4th because he was salty that he was not getting any shots after he was hot earlier in the half...

3pt shooting wasnt on....it was like memphis said, ingram can get his but we are going to run the 3pt shooters off the line..gang up on zion and beat them on second chance points....

we need another rebounder...