Whether it was an emotionally-charged Nov. 27 game in which Anthony Davis returned to New Orleans for the first time, or Zion Williamson’s first appearance in Staples Center on Feb. 25, or Sunday’s highly-anticipated, nationally-televised meeting on ESPN, the mostly-untested Pelicans experienced a playoff-like atmosphere multiple times while facing the Lakers in 2019-20.
Although the bottom-line result in the season series reads Lakers 4, Pelicans 0, performing in those types of pressure-filled, glare-of-the-spotlight environments could have longer-term benefits for New Orleans (26-34). A team partly led by young players without NBA playoff experience hopes to add some of that next month, but in the meantime, the final 22 games of the regular season will be about making further improvements. As Pelicans fifth-year head coach Alvin Gentry described following Sunday’s 122-114 loss, the Lakers are a few steps ahead of where his team is right now, but L.A. has served as a barometer for how much better New Orleans needs to get and areas it must upgrade. The Pelicans lost by four, 10, nine and eight points, respectively, to the Western Conference’s best team record-wise.
“There are a lot of things we’ve got to try to do better,” Gentry said, alluding partly to the Pelicans averaging 16.5 turnovers vs. the Lakers and having sporadic defensive communication issues. “(But the Lakers) are not who we’re chasing right now. We’ve got other things on our mind (in terms of trying to move up to eighth place and reach the playoffs). They’re the measuring stick in the West right now, obviously.”
Although New Orleans was swept by L.A., the Pelicans were within one possession into crunch time during three of the four games. A degree of credit certainly goes to the Lakers’ third-ranked defense, as New Orleans shot a combined 32 percent from three-point range in the four matchups. The Pelicans – the NBA’s third-best team from the arc – have shot below 30 percent only 11 times all season in 60 games, but three of those instances occurred against Los Angeles. Nineteen-year-old Williamson only appeared in the latter two games, averaging a whopping 32.0 points per game on 59 percent shooting, while 22-year-old All-Star Brandon Ingram admittedly pressed some against his former team, shooting just 34 percent from the field and 21 percent on threes.
“I don’t think we’re that extremely far away from being able to compete at that level (of the Lakers), but we’ve got a lot of young guys and we’ve got a lot of things we’ve got to learn,” Gentry said Sunday. “To me, the No. 1 thing is you have to compete – and we did that tonight – and we’ve got to get better at some of the execution things to have a chance to beat that team.”
Although the Pelicans were disappointed to not capitalize on leading the Lakers 95-93 through three quarters Sunday, it was another lesson they hope will pay off in the future. New Orleans has five veterans on its roster with NBA playoff experience (JJ Redick, Jrue Holiday, Derrick Favors, E’Twaun Moore and Darius Miller), but also four rookies, as well as three former Lakers who’ve never been there.
“It’s good for our team,” Ingram said of going through adversity. “I think in the past we’ve seen a lot of young teams go through this and eventually become really good teams, especially the ones that stick together. So it’s important for us to go through this and keep learning and figure out how we can execute the best way.”
