Oof, tough loss. Definitely not a bad performance, but simply not enough to beat a very good team. Game thoughts below:
Pelicans Still Have Our Number: The Pelicans came out hot, and they looked like a team that just knew they had our number. BI looked genuinely unstoppable, but what made matters worse was that we let their hot offense get us completely out of rhythm, leading to a big 21 point lead. End of the day, they really just came up bigger than us. Their stars BI/Zion just traded off streaks of being unstoppable, and they simply hit bigger shots (Herb Jones is the honorary terrible shooter who daggers the Clippers).
Paul George: I’ll start with the good. Paul George continues to be our best player. He plays aggressively on offense, and still has some great juice on defense. I love him taking confident 3s and going for big dunks, but god damn he gets no love from the refs. Speaking of which, the Pelicans earned their W, but damn those refs were rough on us.
Harden: He’s looking better, but man he needs to look to fucking score. He’s averaging ~10 FGAs a game, which is simply too low. On the Nets as their 3rd option, he was taking 16FGAs. I get he’s trying to “fit in,” but he’s gotta let it fly and drive more frequently. He’s basically playing like Cp3, when we need him to play like James fucking Harden. I get he’s not in his prime, but he’s a generational scorer who just keeps passing and passing.
Theis vs. Zubac: I’ve defended Zu quite a bit, and despite what people say, he still has some very important skills. He’s big, has a soft touch, and is still a generally solid defender. But man, Theis just brings some extra juice to the lineups. He’s more switchable, plays with higher energy, and has way more of an offensive bag.
**Recurring Issues–**Russ/PJ/Zu lineups, Timeouts, and Free Throws:
It really shouldn’t be this hard, but it’s so egregiously obvious that Russ/PJ/Zu aren’t playable together. PJ is completely cooked offensively, and he’s clearly super uncomfortable with anything besides standing in the corner. Pairing him up with Zu led to some awful turnovers, and when you add in Russ, the entire defense can basically just focus on PG/Norm.
I’ve generally stayed away from hitting on Russ directly in my game thoughts, but I gotta say something here. He has not looked good, and it’s painful. There’s a reason why his minutes are slipping. I don’t think he’ll get replaced by Bones, because Russ/PG still have great chemistry, and we’ve seen that Bones/Norm is an awful pairing. But man, his misses are fucking BAD. He has been defending well this season, but there are times where he is still just caught ball watching. He needs to be better.
Speaking of things that Ty should stop doing,STOP WASTING TIMEOUTS. Jesus Christ. It doesn’t get talked about enough, because it’s such a subtle thing, but he eats up his timeouts like Costco Free Samples. When the Pelicans started running away with it in the 4th, there were lots of comments demanding for a timeout. Well, we only had 1-2 left.
FTs: Make your free throws. Really that fucking simple.
Overall, this wasn’t an awful loss, but it was definitely frustrating. We had a rough whistle, made some silly mistakes, but end of the day, we had a chance of winning and the Pelicans just made the bigger shots. Still lots and lots to improve on, but I do think the vision is coming together.
Oof, tough loss. Definitely not a bad performance, but simply not enough to beat a very good team. Game thoughts below:
Overall, this wasn’t an awful loss, but it was definitely frustrating. We had a rough whistle, made some silly mistakes, but end of the day, we had a chance of winning and the Pelicans just made the bigger shots. Still lots and lots to improve on, but I do think the vision is coming together.