New Orleans Pelicans

Player Grades: New Orleans Pelicans Fall Short Against Los Angeles Clippers

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The New Orleans Pelicans could not extend their five-game home winning streak, as they fell short to the Los Angeles Clippers.

The New Orleans Pelicans could not  complete the L.A. Sweep this week.

After beating the Lakers Tuesday, they looked to beat one of the Western Conference elites. That team being the Los Angeles Clippers, the same Clippers who played in Cleveland last night.

The Pelicans, who hadn’t played since Monday, were presented with a golden chance to steal a game against a clearly better team.

New Orleans would fall well short.

The Pelicans started the game with great energy. New Orleans pushed the tempo against the tired Clippers, leading to easy transition baskets. Anthony Davis finished with eight points after the first quarter. New Orleans led 30-25 and it appeared the Pelicans may be on their way to another impressive home win.

Then midway through the second quarter, the game completely shifted.

Davis would go to the locker room with a shoulder injury and for awhile, it looked as if New Orleans would be able to hold firm. The Pelicans led 44-35 with 7:18 left in the second. The Clippers would retake the lead with 3:56 left in the quarter.

Davis would return but the damage had been done. New Orleans would not lead for the rest of the game. The tale of the tape was the stark contrast in three point shooting.

The Clippers would shoot 10-24 (41.7 percent) from three.

The Pelicans shot 5-20 (25 percent) from three.

Here are the individual grades from tonight’s contest.

New OrleansPelicans96

Los AngelesClippers114

Tim Frazier

PG, New Orleans Pelicans

DTim Frazier was bad tonight. He started off the game very well. Frazier was getting into sets early and often. He was constantly leaking out in transition to get early baskets. Frazier finished the first quarter with five points and five assists. Even more impressive than the numbers, though was his willingness to push. After the first quarter though, the offense slowed down significantly and Frazier couldn’t adjust. In the half-court, he was a non factor, as the Clippers willingness to switch on all screens limited his outlet options. Many times tonight, he was forced into settling for wild attempts thrown at the rim. The length of the Clippers clearly bothered Frazier.. Defensively, the Clippers had him all over the place and he was a major culprit in allowing dribble penetration.

Jrue Holiday

G, New Orleans Pelicans

C-Jrue was not assertive enough on the offensive end tonight. Maybe it is not in his DNA to shoot often, but he has to have big scoring nights for this team to win games against upper echelon competition. Defensively he was brilliant, as he was smothering Chris Paul all game. Although the defense as a unit was porous, Jrue noticeably stood out. Offensively, however, nine points on 12 shots won’t cut it. He struggled with the interior length of the Clippers and his teammates didn’t do a good job of opening up the floor. The lack of shooting hampered New Orleans’ ability to find easy shots at the rim.

Solomon Hill

F, New Orleans Pelicans

FHill was a disaster tonight. Sure, he made two three pointers, but he was a non-factor in every other way. The most disappointing part of his stat-line is his two rebounds. For a player who is playing a lot of minutes at the four. that is unacceptable. Hill won’t ever be an effective scorer for New Orleans, so it is a must that he finds other skills to bring to the table. Two rebounds, zero assists and average to above average defense will not cut it.

In this clip, you can see Hill frozen to the spot. It’s just one example, but he needs to do more on the defensive end to justify his large contract.

Anthony Davis

PF, New Orleans Pelicans

BAnthony Davis was on his way to a typically masterful game, before getting hurt in the 1st quarter. This season it seems like the only thing that can stop Davis is his own body. Defensively, he had a rough game. DeAndre Jordan was dominating him on the glass and AD allowed two huge 4th quarter rebounds. Davis also over-committed on drives to the rim and struggled on close-outs. Blake Griffin was shooting open 18 footers all night. Some of that may have been game-plan, but Davis was giving him far to much space. For the most part, Davis still played well. Easy baskets were hard to come by though and at some point, the Pelicans offense has to be more than “hope AD does something amazing”. Tonight against a good Clipper defense, that wasn’t effective.

Omer Asik

C, New Orleans Pelicans

D+Omer Asik was very “eh” tonight. Not bad, but not good. With that being said, he would have been better than Terrence Jones tonight. The team struggled with rebounds and the big-bodied Asik could have certainty softened the blow in that regard. However, on offense the Clippers completely ignored his presence. At one point, Raymond Felton found his way onto Asik……He locked him up. This is not something new, but the Clippers clear disregard for Asik hurt the offense in a major way tonight, considering no one could hit a three.

E'Twaun Moore

G, New Orleans Pelicans

B+E’Twaun Moore briefly flashed his 6th man prowess tonight. Despite playing only 19 minutes, Moore was able to score 15 points on only 12 attempts. It was shocking not to see Moore only get 19 minutes, as he was clearly the Pelicans second best scoring threat tonight. Moore also had a decent size advantage over the Clipper guards, which he used to score his first basket of the game. E’Twaun Moore has the potential to thrive in the role of 6th man as a volume scorer. And unlike most volume scorers, Moore does not hurt you with his defense.

Terrence Jones

F/C, New Orleans Pelicans

D+Terrence Jones was abysmal tonight. His raw stats show that he played adequately. (14 points, nine rebounds and a block) However, he was lost on defense all night. Once the Clippers got into the paint, Jones was clueless on his rotations and defensive assignments. This allowed many open corner threes, where a Pelican would not be near the shooter. It was almost comical to watch a player get lost so badly. No joke, it was bad. On offense he flashed his pontential, completing some very nice passes and finishes. However, many times the ball would swing to him and he would hesitate and waste the chance. Or when Jones would get the ball in the paint, he would bring the ball too low and get stripped. Another hot and cold game from T-Jones.

The brief moments of brilliance by Terrence Jones. Plays like this leave you jaw dropped and oozing about his potential…. However they are usually followed up by plays like this.

Now there is bad defense all-around here. Davis should be at the rim to help, yes. But Jones does a poor job of recognizing the roll and is standing flat-footed in no-mans land.

Langston Galloway

G, New Orleans Pelicans

FIf Langston Galloway had a theme song, it would be Katy Perry’s “Hot and Cold”. One game the guy can’t miss and it’s beautiful, and then there’s games like tonight, where he’s just throwing up bricks. Would love to have seen Gentry give Moore some of Galloway’s minutes tonight, but oh well. Expect these hot- and cold games from the streaky Galloway.

Anthony Brown

F, New Orleans Pelicans

CAnthony Brown played 25 minutes tonight and overall played very well. He missed badly on his three misses from deep, but other than that he ran the floor and spaced well. Brown is an intriguing player and if he can actually hit his threes, he can be valuable. He looks like an NBA player on the court, and dare I say he has the potential to be better than Solomon Hill. It’s a hot-take, but Brown seems to be climbing the ladder in the rotation. If Hill keeps struggling, then maybe…

Alexis Ajinca

C , New Orleans Pelicans

INC Alexis Ajinca made his first basket and then played bad basketball for the rest of the game.

Buddy Hield

SG, New Orleans Pelicans

Disappointing loss but not disheartening. The New Orleans Pelicans next travel to Oklahoma City for a match-up against the Thunder Sunday Night.

PLAY OF THE GAME 

Next: What if the New Orleans Pelicans Had Kept Nerlens Noel?

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