Coach to players: ‘We need an attitude’
December 4, 2013
Thomas’ explosiveness powering NSU offense
December 4, 2013
After a slow start to the season, the New Orleans Pelicans are playing better basketball.
With a small taste at life near .500, the Pels are now keeping their eyes on the Western Conference Playoff picture.
After beginning the regular season with both 1-3 and 3-6 records, New Orleans has steadied the ship and has started to play more consistently in recent weeks. With four wins in their past six games, the Pelicans are approaching their form this preseason when they posted one of the best records in the NBA.
“We needed this,” shooting guard Eric Gordon said of New Orleans’ push. “I like these kind of situations. You can’t get too high or too low. You need to stay calm and each possession (is critical). You always need to worry about the next play.”
For New Orleans, the early season has marked the beginning of the Anthony Davis empire.
The 20-year-old second-year power forward has been one of the best interior players in the NBA in the early weeks of the season. The former Kentucky standout averaged 19.4 points and 10.6 rebounds per game through the Pels’ first 14 games. Davis also gets 3.9 blocks per contest and 1.7 steals. He shoots 50 percent from the floor and 85 percent from the foul line.
“He’s doing it every single night, but I still think that he can be better,” Pelicans coach Monty Williams said. “Obviously I love the points and the rebounds, but he’s only scratching the surface as to where he’s going to be as he gets stronger and learns how to draw more fouls.”
“I’m going to do everything my team needs me to do to win,” Davis said. “If it’s me diving on the floor or jumping in the stands in order to save a ball and get an easy transition bucket, then that’s what I’m going to do. We have to have that mentality to win games.”
But Davis’ teammates will need to carry a heavier load in the coming weeks. That’s because Davis fractured his non-shooting hand in Sunday night’s victory against the New York Knicks – a blow that will sideline the big man indefiniely.
Without Davis on the floor, the Pels held on and beat the Eastern Conference foe.
But without him for an extended period, New Orleans knows that it will be tasked with replacing a superstar.
“That’s a tough blow,” Gordon said. “With the way he’s been playing, it’s always going to be difficult to replace that kind of production. Each guy will need to do a little bit extra to fill the void.”
But even with Davis’ top-notch play, the Pelicans struggled to win games in the early portion of their regular season schedule. Players within the team believe that’s because of lapses in defense and chemistry.
The Pels allowed 100 or more points in nine of their first 15 games, including four games where opponents blazed New Orleans for 110 or more points. Those ugly numbers include a humiliating 112-93 loss to the San Antonio Spurs this past week, a game that saw the defending Western Conference Champions shoot 54.3 percent as a team with seven players scoring in double figures.
In that game, Williams said things came too easy. Center Jason Smith agreed.
“We just didn’t have an answer for their offense,” Smith said. “They were out there getting anything they wanted on offense. We just didn’t make it tough for them. That’s a little bit on our part, a majority on our part actually, but we’ll bounce back from this.”
When the team does bring the effort and intensity on that side of the floor, Davis and fellow big man Greg Stiemsma think the Pels are a different team.
“We feed off our defense,” Stiemsma said. “When we’re playing well defensively, it really gets our offense going.”
“When we play good defense, we’re a tough team to beat,” Davis said. “We have to do a better job with the pick and roll, but with better communication, that will come.”
Communication and chemistry are also a work in progress for the Pelicans. With so many new pieces on the roster, including All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday and free agent signee Tyreke Evans, New Orleans’ rotation has struggled at times with turnovers, mental errors and missed rotations.
Those problems have seemed to get a little bit better in recent weeks since standout power forward Ryan Anderson returned from the injured list and rejoined the Pels’ bench.
Anderson missed the first few weeks of the year after undergoing surgery on his toe in the offseason.
He said that he believes the team is getting better and better each game as New Orleans’ players get accustomed to the system.
“It’s coming together,” he said. “For a team with as much turnover as we’ve had, we sort of knew it might take us a while to get things going. But I think we’re playing better now. Hopefully we can continue to grow and see if we might be able to make a little noise here.”
To do just that, New Orleans will have to battle a tough schedule. The Pels play Dallas tonight, Oklahoma City on Friday and have games with Memphis, Denver, Golden State, the Clippers and Houston throughout December.
But the good news is that a lot of those games will be played in the New Orleans Arena.
Beginning tonight, the Pels will begin a four-game home-stand that will last for more than a week.
Below is a look at New Orleans’ upcoming schedule:
Wednesday – vs. Dallas
Friday – vs. Oklahoma City
Dec. 11 – vs. Detroit
Dec. 13 – vs. Memphis
Dec. 15 – @ Denver
Dec. 17 – @ Golden State
Dec. 18 – @ Los Angeles Clipper
Dec. 21 – @ Portland
New Orleans Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday rises through the air for a layup while forward Anthony Davis (23) follows the shot. Holiday and the rest of the Pels’ players will all need to step up their play after Davis broke his hand in Sunday’s game.
