Game Day: Pelicans (23-36) @ Suns (49-10), Friday 2/25/2022

[Gladiator]

Rebounding has been a farce and defence not in sync. They’ve let the Pelicans and the officials get in their heads and gone away from playing proper basketball. I hope they review this one deeply and not just shrug it off as just one of those nights. There are some issues shown out tonight that need proper attention.

[Vladimir_Taltos]

They needed Aaron tonight...

[Vladimir_Taltos]

Given the rebounding disaster, why not give Biyombo more minutes also?

[specialsauce]

Bottom line is that Shamet and Payton ain’t gonna cut it as our only guards alongside Book.

[Wally_West]

Can’t win them all. Oh well.

[specialsauce]

Javale has been awful. Biz needs to get more run.

[virtual9mm]

Takeaways:

(1) Amazing how much worse the big men look without CP3, isn't it?
(2) There's only iso offense without CP3 for now. Where's the PnR?
(3) Why not go down to Ayton more? I know he missed a couple but he could draw a double team. Run the team inside-out and try to do the old Houston Rockets thing of having an open 3-point shooter.

Torrey Craig and Landry Shamet shot the Suns out of a potential opportunity to come back.

[bajanguy008]

Not surprised to see us have tough times executing because Willie knows our offense inside out. So say what you want about it being the Pelicans, this wasn't much different to the equivalent of a playoff matchup where the other team knows all your stuff and taking away the first couple options.
Sticking with the playoffs concept, as seen last year that's when we need creating from the others. Mikal definitely didn't have much juice tonight, we hardly were able to attack off the dribble so it's obvious the lack of guards hurt us.

The defense however getting carved up was a rough watch, I mean CJ and BI are legit 1v1 players but hey.
On to the next one

[The Bobster]

1. When your top 3 PG are out, your offense will struggle most nights.
2. When #1 happens you can't afford an off night defending and rebounding.

[The Bobster]

Not surprised to see us have tough times executing because Willie knows our offense inside out. So say what you want about it being the Pelicans, this wasn't much different to the equivalent of a playoff matchup where the other team knows all your stuff and taking away the first couple options.
Sticking with the playoffs concept, as seen last year that's when we need creating from the others. Mikal definitely didn't have much juice tonight, we hardly were able to attack off the dribble so it's obvious the lack of guards hurt us.

The defense however getting carved up was a rough watch, I mean CJ and BI are legit 1v1 players but hey.
On to the next one

New Orleans is 23-24 since their 1-12 start.

[Uncle_Gene]

Free Throws:
NOP: 33-41
PHX: 18-24

I didn't get a chance to watch the game. Was New Orleans that aggressive ? Was it cause of the back to back ?

[SunsRIt]

NO was triple teaming Booker 25 feet from the basket, making him get rid of it.

I don’t like that when a long shot goes up most of the time the Suns vacate the key and start down to play defense. This isn’t just Ayton, but the whole team. Also, it’s really hard for Ayton to get an offensive rebound when he just finished setting a screen 20 feet from the basket. It doesn’t seem like the coaches put much of an emphasis on rebounding.

Also, Payton flat out sucks.

[Superbone]

This is what we were afraid of when we lost Paul.

[ShelC]

[Mori Chu]

Offense looked stuck in the mud without CP3, and our defensive effort was pretty spotty. They played well in the 2nd quarter but that's about it. We got almost nothing from our bench; I think nobody on the bench scored over 3 points other than Shamet's 8. And Ayton decided not to do much; our bigs really look mediocre without CP3 setting them up in the P&R. Point Book is cute for a game here or there but it is absolutely not a viable way to run our team for 6-8 weeks.

As for the Pelicans, McCollum fits in nicely there as a go-to scorer for what would otherwise be an anemic offense. We didn't stop him very well last night. And Valanciunas outperformed our bigs.

[ShelC]

Not much to take from this other than we need Payne and Holiday back. Payton is a total liability, completely unplayable at this point. When he was in, the Pels didn't even pay attention to him and immediately doubled Book, who looked hesitant to swing it to Payton. I'd be fine with Shamet running some point for a few possessions because I think he's a good enough ballhandler and a threat off the dribble.

2nd night of a B2B with travel so this was kind of expected. DA was efficient but unimpactful. Maybe there are tweaks to the offense that get him more set looks for inside-out play, but we're not going to re-work the offense to feature him now with CP out. It's hard to PnR as much as we're used to but we need to stick to it otherwise there's too much 1 on 1. Starting Cam takes offense away from the bench but we don't have much of a choice right now.

We know the offense is going to go flat at times but the defense needs to maintain and we have the defenders to keep that level of play up so no excuse there. BI worked us and we had no answer. CJ is a great offensive player and a really good fit, but gotta make him work harder.

[Split T]

Looks like a good game to have missed

[Nodack]

No point guards and on a back to back spells trouble. I know Peyton is technically a pg but… They definitely looked confused on offense.

[bajanguy008]

Gonna watch this one over cause always more to be learnt after losses

Initial concern is Book's minutes
Book getting better at the blitz, I think fatigue was really a factor because the Clippers used that same scheme so nothing Book hasn't seen before

Our release valve for that had became a flash to the high post/ FT line area usually Mikal or Crowder to give Book an easier pass. Can't remember seeing that action once

As for DA, if we don't hit him in the post early on his rim runs then the offense gonna go to the standard PnR. I think sometimes we miss how much the defense it's sinking in to take away DA and giving that extra second to Cam/Jae or whoever in the corner

[carey]

Saw this L coming from the opening frame. Fact is we are on our 4th string PG (no Paul, no Payne, now no Holiday?) On a segababa? Booker would have had to go full MVP for this one and he didn't.