Pelicans FINALLY Win a Game

For the first time in what feels like years, the Pelicans had more points at the end of an NBA game than their opponent.

In layman’s terms; that means they won!

First of all, I want to offer my sincere thanks and gratitude to whoever can honestly say they said none of the following things through the first couple weeks of this season.

• The Pelicans should tank
• The Pelicans should have kept Monty Williams
• The Pelicans have zero chance at making the playoffs

If you passed the rapid-overreaction-fandom-test, congratulations!

To those who still support one of those statements, and would respond with “They have only won one game” I’ll go ahead and address you guys anyway.

1. No team with a healthy Anthony Davis will ever be able to tank until he’s at least 38 years old.
2. Monty had five years to instill his system, Gentry’s had a little over 5 games and is clearly a better fit scheme-wise to coach this roster.
3. You only need about 42 wins to get the 8th seed this year, if they can keep it .500 until April, when they are not projected to lose a single game (Bulls are literally the only non-lottery team that month), they will easily get 40-44 wins.

Nov 10, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans forward Anthony Davis (23) is guarded by Dallas Mavericks forward Dwight Powell (7) during the second quarter of a game at the Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

Now on to the recap.

The Pelicans beat the Mavericks 120-105 tonight in an absolute blow-out. You know how most teams start putting in their scrubby players in the last few minutes if there’s no shot at losing the lead? The Pelicans did that at halftime.

Speaking of halftime, out starts were absolutely fantastic up until that point. Gordon was hitting threes, getting steals and drawing fouls, Jrue was 4/5 from the floor including 2/2 from deep. Asik provided a huge bump in strength and rebounding inside, and Anthony Davis was on pace for a 34 – 14 – 4 game before sitting the 2nd half.

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I want to talk about Asik a little more, specifically how comfortable AD was when the two of them shared the floor. Even in an Alvin Gentry offense, AD benefits so much from having a big body on the inside to absorb contact and fight for positioning. On the defensive end, AD benefits even more since he can play the free safety role instead of being purely a rim protector (though his rim protection has been elite this season).

Other than that, there isn’t much to talk about (which is a good thing). Getting Asik and Jrue back (our two best defenders) miraculously did amazing things to shore up the defense, while having a legitimate PG out there next to AD allowed him to play to his strengths and saved him from forcing up bad shots.

This team is really good! That’s really all you can take away. When healthy, this group could absolutely be a 55 win level team. Tonight they absolutely mauled Dallas (a tough veteran savvy and experienced team) by simply adding an average level center and getting a solid 15 first half minutes from their PG.

For those who watched tonight’s game, imagine if Tyreke was available to come off the bench instead of Ish, imagine if Pondexter was out there hustling on defense instead of Babbit, imagine if we had Cole and Jrue totally healthy so we could go to sleep without thinking “we just signed Jimmer Fredette with our NBA hardship exception.”

Feb 20, 2015; Orlando, FL, USA; New Orleans Pelicans guard Jimmer Fredette (32) drives to the basket against the Orlando Magic during the second quarter at Amway Center. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Lil’ Jimmy did chip in a nice 2 points on 1/3 shooting, but lord knows his presence is a sign of tragedy and wrath.

Oh! And I forgot to mention Ryan Anderson!

Tell me which one of these box scores belong to future hall-of-famer Dirk Nowitzki and which one belongs to present hall-of-famer (in our hearts) Ryan Anderson.

Player A: 18 points, 7/13 shooting, 1/5 from three, 4 rebounds.

Player B: 25 points, 10/16 shooting, 2/4 from three, 11 rebounds.

As you probably guessed, since clearly I set the question up for this to be the answer, Ryan Anderson was player B!

The dude straight up carried the Pelicans in their post-halftime extended slaughtering of the Dallas Mavericks, and was crashing the boards as well giving the Pelicans an incredible 5 second chance opportunities through his dedication to offensive rebounding.

As far as team stats go, the Pelicans were a group of snipers from deep. They shot 42% to the Mavericks 25% from behind the arc, but the best part, The Pelicans shot 33 threes this game to the Mavericks 20!

As a wise man once said: “You know you’re looking at an Alvin Gentry team when they attempt 33 threes, and you know you’re looking at a Jimmer Fredette team when they make 42% of them.” – Wise Man

In the end, we saw a taste of what this team can be. An appetizer version of what will once day become the Pelican’s buffet. We saw a glimmer of how far this team can go, and that glimmer was still enough to win by 15 and throw in the towel 24 minutes into the game.

I don’t know about you, but it seems to me the only place to go is up……