It was barely a week into the season, yet New Orleans spent a 48-hour period seemingly needing to channel a certain Green Bay Packers quarterback and his famous quote about getting people to “R-E-L-A-X.” The Pelicans were .500 through four games, but a one-sided loss Tuesday at Phoenix brought out existential questions on everything from the team’s shooting, to its lineups, to its bench.
For a couple days at least, New Orleans perhaps quelled some of those concerns by pummeling a rebuilding Oklahoma City team, 113-80, on New Year’s Eve. The Pelicans rolled to a victory despite losing Brandon Ingram to a second-half ejection (flagrant-2 foul) and only having Zion Williamson on the floor for a total of 17 minutes due to foul trouble. En route to improving to 2-2 on the road and 3-2 overall, New Orleans relied heavily on a trio of guards who were either off to slow starts shooting-wise (Eric Bledsoe, Lonzo Ball), or hadn’t been part of the regular rotation (Nickeil Alexander-Walker). A look at each backcourt player’s performance against the Thunder:
Eric Bledsoe
“Getting downhill” has been a common phrase lately used to describe what New Orleans wants from its trade addition from Milwaukee. Through four previous games, Bledsoe had fired 21 three-pointers out of 37 total shots. On Thursday, he got to the basket frequently during his 10-point second quarter, resulting in three layups. Bledsoe finished the game with 17 points on efficient 7/11 shooting, after the Pelicans had urged him to be more aggressive and not defer as much on offense to the team’s other primary scorers.
“My teammates and coaches want me to be a little bit more selfish out there playing,” Bledsoe said. “They think I’ve been a little too passive. They want me to play my game, being aggressive, attacking the hoop.”
“That’s who Eric Bledsoe is,” head coach Stan Van Gundy. “He’s a great attacker, one of the best in the league. We saw that tonight. He made good decisions; he always defends. It was good to see him attacking the way he did. We got really good guard play tonight.”
Lonzo Ball
Like Bledsoe, Ball was coming off a quiet, seven-point performance in Phoenix, but he responded Thursday with a near triple-double, recording 16 points, eight rebounds and nine assists. Ball still struggled a bit from the perimeter (2/7 on threes), but scored four times in the paint, including a putback and post-up in the third quarter.
“We need to drive the ball to score,” Van Gundy said. “We need to get a few more cuts (to the basket) to score. It can’t just be Zion and Brandon attacking. (In Oklahoma City) we got more guys in attack mode. I think that was a lot better.”
Bledsoe notched his best plus-minus of the young season (+10), while Ball’s assist total was a season high.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker
The Toronto native logged four minutes in the opener vs. the Raptors, then was a DNP against Miami and San Antonio, before getting a greater chance at Phoenix (22 minutes), with New Orleans trailing big for the entire second half in Arizona. The second-year pro seemed to build on his 11-point performance against the Suns, tallying 14 points at OKC while facing his first cousin, Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Alexander-Walker went 2/5 from three-point range, but perhaps the most impressive aspect of Thursday’s outing was his three layups in the paint, where he contorted his body to bank in shots off the glass.
“It’s definitely been a focus in the offseason,” Alexander-Walker said of finishing drives around the basket. “Something I wanted to improve on. Getting in the paint last year wasn’t the issue, it was what I did when I got there. I worked on making moves on the big (defenders), being aggressive, being strong with the ball, taking (the ball) to the backboard so that (the shot-blocker) can’t get to it. Little deceptive moves. The repetition from the summer helped build confidence for me. It’s starting to show.”
