New Orleans Pelicans: Let The Good Times Roll
By Owen Sanborn
As I have previously stated, the New Orleans Pelicans are entering a tough 10-game stretch of basketball over the next couple of weeks. Facing Houston, Portland and Oklahoma City in a four day span isn’t exactly an ideal situation for any team that faces their share of inconsistencies.
The fact that Portland and Oklahoma City were slated to be played back-to-back certainly seemed to be unfair.
But then the Pellies squeaked out a 99-90 victory over the Rockets on Thursday night with a healthy Dwight Howard on hand and Kevin Durant (tragically) sprained his ankle, making Sunday’s match up with the Thunder a bit more tolerable.
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If you were to have asked me last Wednesday to predict how New Orleans would fare in their next three games I would have probably told you that they were going to lose a hard fought game in Houston, beat Portland at home and then roll over against Oklahoma City due to the surging mentality of the Thunder.
Much to my surprise, Anthony Davis and the gang (I like referring to other groups of people as “the gang” just makes a sentence sound more chipper.) pulled out two huge road victories over Western Conference powers and rolled over against the Blazers at home. Just what everybody saw coming, right?
Wrong.
Davis has continued his super freak tendencies and the rest of the roster is beginning to follow suit by nestling in nicely to their roles. Jrue Holiday is facilitating the offense and picking the correct times to look for his shot.
Tyreke Evans is a capable dual threat as both a facilitator and scorer because of his lethal ability to penetrate a defense. Plus, he has the unique ability to bail out the offense during late in the shot clock possessions.
Flying extremely under the radar are the contributions of Dante Cunningham and Luke Babbitt who have formed a two-headed small forward combination. Babbitt’s flowing hair and floor spacing complements Cunningham’s gritty play and frustrating long two point jump shots (please Dante, take one step back and you can score three points instead of two!!!).
It is difficult to calculate the value of a floor spacer via traditional stats, so I will instead choose to illustrate Babbitt’s impact on a play by merely sitting in the weak side corner.
First of all, those sharp red alternate jerseys are one of the more underrated in the league. It’s taken me some time to cross over to them after they debuted against the Orlando Magic in October, but I am officially on board.
Now, as far as Babbitt’s impact on a defense. Evans sets up the offense at the top of the three-point line, waiting for Anthony Davis to come set up a pick and roll. Notice how Perry Jones (Babbitt’s man) takes two tiny steps towards the lane in anticipation of having to help on a potential dribble drive from Evans.
Evans, as he routinely does, splits the defense and rumbles into the lane, leaving Jones to make a quick decision on whether to help on the drive or stay put on Babbitt. Jones strangely tries to do both of these actions by flailing at Evans as if he is going to contest, but he really is shifting back towards Babbitt because of his shooting ability. Without Jones clogging up space, Evans has a wide open lane to finish in, resulting in two points for the Pelicans.
Babbitt’s shooting touch is creating driving lanes for both Evans and Holiday that simply were not there when Eric Gordon was sharing the floor with them. It will be interesting to see how the offense fares once Gordon makes his way back into the lineup.
A 2-1 start to this critical stretch is an encouraging start for the Pelicans to say the least. They will have a date with the struggling Pacers at home tonight before entering a crippling stretch against the Spurs and Bulls over the weekend.
It will be important for New Orleans to come out victorious tonight and keep the good vibes in tact.
Allow me to be the first (and probably only person) to thank Luke Babbitt for his unheralded contributions.
We will now take it to The Cars for the proper send off. Sing it boys!