Two problems were clear over the weekend for the Orleans Pelicans in loss to the Los Angeles Lakers

Two problems were clear over the weekend for the Orleans Pelicans in loss to the Los Angeles Lakers

The parrot games over the weekend exposed two deep issues with this Pelicans team despite them getting a victory let’s break down the disastrous second quarter against the Lakers and how they only squeaked out a win over the Portland Trailblazers it’s the Monday episode of lock on Pelicans let’s Go you are locked on Pelicans your daily New Orleans Pelicans podcast part of the locked on podcast work your team every day welcome to another edition of locked on Pelicans the daily podcast covering your favorite team the New Orleans Pelicans at NBA part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day

Available wherever you get your podcast and available on YouTube I’m your host Pelicans Insider credential member of the media Jake Madison at Nola Jake on Twitter here with you on this Monday tipping off a week’s worth of shows for you so please subscribe wherever you get get your podcast and available on

YouTube as well becoming every day or listen Monday through Friday we are the number one Pelicans podcast breaking down everything you want to know about this Pelicans team some programming notes we got a show today for you on Lundy gr hopefully you’re out celebrating if you’re in another part of

The country world where you don’t get off on Monday I’m sorry same for Tuesday we’ll have a show here for you tomorrow on Marty gr a Fat Tuesday Wednesday is probably 5050 uh that’s the plan is to put out a show but let’s see how Tuesday

Goes then we’ll we’ll close out the week strong we also have All-Star break coming up so we get a little bit of downtime here but there’s still going to be shows and I need your help let me know what you want to hear talked about what questions you have since we won’t

Have games as much to cover over the next week or so so help out the show and we’ll get your questions answered live unlocked on Pelicans today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans is brought to you by LinkedIn jobs LinkedIn jobs helps you find the qualified candidat you want to

Talk to faster post your job for free at linkedin.com lockon NBA that’s linkedin.com lockon NBA to post your job for free terms and conditions apply so let’s get into it two games for the Pelicans over the weekend going one in one that’s not the worst could have been

Better because that loss against the Los Angeles Lakers it’s the Lakers you want to win that game just on principle right was also pretty disastrous for the second quarter the Pelicans played relatively well in that game relatively didn’t play amazing but relatively well but really fell apart entirely in the

Second quarter and it wasn’t the offense this time they put up 35 points that’s good enough to to win most quarters for you but they gave up 51 51 they held the Clippers in the previous game here to 47 points in the first half and in this game they let the

Los Angeles Lakers score 87 that’s a 40o swing just maddening to see what this team does where you go from the high of putting up a season High against the Jazz to like a low where it was a 70 point swing and the amount of points

That you scored in your next game this team can be very maddening at times here so we’re going to try and make a little bit sense of what happened now this could also really be you know partially La nightlife is undefeated that is aane in the NBA when teams go to Los Angeles

They get a day off or a day in between games where you play the Clippers then the Lakers and you go out and party in La that’s a right and that creates I think at times kind of a lack of urgency in the next game there’s there’s a reason homec

Court advantage is very much a thing in Los Angeles but here’s the thing right the Lakers played the night before they should have been tired because we’re going to we’re going to bring this up in the next segment too right the the Pelicans were on the second night of a

Back toback and kind of struggled to get a win yet the Lakers came out in this one and really kind of went at the Pelicans scoring 139 points in this and it was that second quarter that was an absolute disaster and it’s it’s it’s even worse because when you look at that

Second quarter the Pelicans were really set up for Success Anthony Davis picked up his third foul early on in the first period and had to sit most of the four of that second quarter he played just about half shade over six minutes so you couldn’t really take advantage when one

Of their their biggest threats is out right that meant that you were getting almost 6 minutes worth of Jackson Hayes we know this it’s not great that’s not a good situation if you’re the Los Angeles Lakers yet the Pelicans couldn’t take an Advantage right plus minus wise Jackson

Hazes was a plus 15 in that quarter in 5 minutes and 43 seconds it was a disaster for what the Pelicans were trying to do and the lineup that really hurt them was Zion Williamson CJ McCullum Trey Murphy Larry an junor then Dyson Daniels and then herb Jones too they just really had

No answer you know there was just no physicality there that’s where you miss yonas valunas though yonas valunas checked in and still didn’t have a particularly strong quarter because in very limited minutes he played about two well they kind of like helped the bleeding I guess he played about six and

A half minutes there and they were only a minus one so they did need his physicality during all of that and so the Pelicans got blitzed because of that and it really led to this game just getting away from them right then and there just zero resistance defensively

Again they scored well enough right but Larry was rough and just had no answer for when it felt like he should have been okay to kind of win that matchup and then Zion defense was atrocious in this one like absolutely atrocious he just looked like he had no clue what was

Going on at all in this in this second quarter really in this game right just back door Cutters all around when you compare you know the Pelin offense to the Lakers offense in this one the Lakers took just three mid-range shots it was all threes and in the restricted

Area and they made every single shot they took in the restricted area in that quarter it’s 1 2 3 4 5 six seven shots in the restricted area the Pelicans weren’t making their shots because the Lakers were I thought more physical and this comes kind of the first thing that

I think we really saw the two deeper issues with this Pelicans team that I said were exposed over the weekend in the open here that leads us to the first one here with the Lakers when when other teams are more physical than the New Orleans Pelicans the Pelicans just kind

Of Wither and don’t seem to have an answer for that right when Zion’s not getting his shot to fall at the rim and struggling a little bit there it tends to just kind of fall apart very quickly for this team team you know they need to be able to answer the physicality but

The problem is they just don’t have players that are like the most physical here and I think that’s leading to certain issues right once you take yonas valunas out who’s the most physical player for this team right it’s it’s Zion I would say just the way he can

Barrel at The Rim but when his shot wasn’t falling and in that second quarter he was just three of seven only gotone to the line once right it just seems to really impact this team and they have no answer for that sort of thing so they Lakers coming out being

More physical than them on defense being more physical than them on offense too by going out and you know trying to get down and score in the paint and all of that just took this team out of it and they just lost the game right there

Right you know and they were having a balanced scoring effort in that second period they’re five of nine but you’ve got to do more than just shoot threes threes are important don’t get me wrong threes are really important but you need to go out and you need to try and shoot

A little bit better and try and get downhill and score the rim and it just evolved into very isolation style basketball that served nobody here the Pelicans had eight assists in that quarter on 26 shot attempts right like you could have done better it was on 13

Makes so that number’s not terrible but it feels like they needed to be working the ball around more doing a little bit more and you just didn’t see that from them and then that physicality just took them out entirely and you lost the game right there that has been a theme all

Season long you know they weren’t up ready ready for this one mentally for whatever reason and then they really struggled with the physicality let’s get into being up for the game the energy the effort more in the next segment here because yeah they beat the Portland Trailblazers but would you say you were

Particularly inspired by that let’s talk about that coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans right now though I’m excited to tell you about LinkedIn jobs when you’re hiring for your small business you want to find the quality professionals that are right for the that’s why you have to

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Breaking down everything you want to know about this Pelicans team subscribe wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube and let me know on Twitter what you want me to talk about next week I got this week planned out we’ve got the game tonight on Monday night so we’ll

Recap that on Tuesday Wednesday I’ve got a show planned Thursday we’ll recap the game from Wednesday then Friday I want to kind of look at the biggest questions going into the rest of the season the stretch run here after the All-Star break for the Pelicans but I also want

To know what you want to hear about for next week as we talk about everything um going into the All-Star break and all of that so it should be a lot of fun here unlock on Pelicans let me know your questions we’ll try and answer him on

The show do whole shows around all of the listener questions here okay so let’s keep talking about the Pelicans over the weekend getting a win after that kind of rough loss against Los Angeles Lakers just a real roller coaster of a season overall for the New

Orleans Pelicans but look a win’s a win so let’s start with that we’re going to nitpick this win but a win is a win and holding a team to 84 points is pretty good right they held Portland under 25 points in every single quarter now it didn’t help that New Orleans you know

Scored 29 Points in two quarters and then 18 and 17 and this was just more of a slog that you wanted but eventually you know it was that they got a little bit of Separation late in the game and that got them there but this was this

Was rough for the Pelicans you know this was a game if you were watching it you know let’s say you were out on the parade route on in Demian and then you had it up on your phone like this guy here or wherever you were watching him

You really confused by the team in this one you know coming off uh a disappointing loss to the Lakers right where they played with more energy effort than you the the team just didn’t scream like they were up for this game and I get that you’re on the second

Night of a backtack but like so what so what how many times have we seen this before with this team that the Just Energy has to come from the bench it doesn’t come from the starters for the right for whatever reason not the right reason for whatever reason and that’s

What you saw in this one right like the Lakers were playing on the second night of a back-to-back and they beat you you you can match that you know those are things you can control there are things that you don’t control that is one of those things that you absolutely do

Control and so it was disappointing to see them not really kind of bring it in this game whatsoever now there notable things that were good right obviously herb Jones who I want to talk about in the next segment I thought played excellent in this game as he’s been playing for a while going

Two of three 14 points you know getting downhill attacking being aggressive four rebounds five assists three steals he’s been awesome this year you know CJ was impactful by trying to Dish the ball move the ball around in the absence of Zion Williamson Brandon Ingram didn’t

Have a good scoring game 38.1% on 8 of 21 shooting but was moving the ball so the ball wasn’t sticking and I do think that’s an important thing here 27 assists on 36 makes is a pretty good number however oh is it just a slog at times with the offense and when these

Guys aren’t moving and that they do then just kind of devolve into like isolation ball and what have you and the pelons need to find a way to kind of keep things flowing right enter Jose Alvarado enter Nai Marshall who brought it again in this game I don’t think their numbers

Really kind of state their importance you had to watch watch it and just kind of feel it for what they did for the team in this one where they just brought the energy again they were key in the third quarter and the fourth quarter and Jose going out there and playing as much

As he’s been playing recently he’s back in the rotation while Jordan Hawkins seems like he’s kind of out of the rotation for the most part though he got some run in this one didn’t make a shot you know it shows the need for a backup point guard I I love Jose right like

Love Jose but he’s undersized and at times doesn’t have the offense that you need right just two points on the he only took three shots so it’s fine two assists three steals he brings you the energy brings you the defense you just need a complete package there and look I

Give him so much credit and I’m glad he’s on the team because I don’t know where they would be without him at all but that’s definitely something that if this team wants to avoid you know a let down and they could have lost this game they could have lost this game right you

Saw Portland tiing I think it was like 62 points they tied it had a chance to go take a lead couldn’t and New Orleans then kind of just held it on but without without Zion things like looked kind of dicey and you’ve got to get better play from your starters there right like

Brandon Ingram can’t score 17 points on 21 shots you can lose you know at least you had Trey Murphy kind of get back into a Groove in this one he was five of eight from three 24 points he was the leading scorer in this game along with

Jeremy Grant seven of 10 five rebounds two blocks a steel nice to see him get into a rhythm here he had a rough game I thought against the Lakers the defense wasn’t great Willie Green even talked about it after the game but here I thought you saw a nice bounceback

Performance from him also like that he was named the starter here even after being called out by the head coach that shows some confidence in him right y yonas Val junis kind to do work down low seven of nine here as well from the field nii came in Off the Bench gave the

Team some energy hit two threes really should have been three threes but his foot was on the line for one of them so that was great right it was also nice to see Matt Ryan get some run in this one get a couple of minutes go out and play

And and start to work his way back cuz I think he could be you know a guy that they sign as we talked about on Friday show to one of the open roster spots that they have as well but just what a sluggish game what a sluggish game so

This comes back to kind of being efficient in making the most of possessions too that if you’re going to not play great basketball you’ve really got to kind of do that and the Pelicans don’t always right Brandon Ingram took just two three point attempts in this

One you know he didn’t take many I don’t have the number up in front of me here against the Los Angeles Lakers either and it’s after he had that kind of Breakout game where he made eight threes and then he just stops taking it was 0

For two against the Lakers as well so when he takes a combined four over the last two games like what what are we doing here he knows he needs to take more threes the team knows he needs to take more threes and if he is it’s going

To probably lead to better shooting than 8 for 21 at least if you make one of those it’s going to be worth an extra point and it also puts more pressure on you know the opponent right like if he had taken more against the Lakers how would that have changed things

Potentially I’m not saying the defense was the issue there but if you see a couple shots go in you know does that change how you defend does that change the energy there right does that changed kind of the physicality of it since they were being more physical than you take

Threes break them out of that right break up the paint and the team just doesn’t do it and that’s what’s holding them back I truly think that you know and so 17 points 21 shots is not a good game that’s not efficient in a game that

You know if they had lost this we’d be roasting him right now deservedly so and because they got the win we’re kind of looking at results over process which I always say you don’t want to do but we are a little bit here and he’s getting a bit of a pass but

Overall they got to just get a little bit more energy and just get on the same page and feel like they have a a consistent cohesive game plan and they don’t so it just doesn’t need to rely on Jose Alvarado Nai Marshall coming in and bringing that energy that look what if

They don’t have it one night now it’s Jose it’s nii they’re always going to bring that kind of energy right like Nagi is just chaotic good the knife in like the best sense of it all so he’s always going to bring it but there’s times when you worry about this team

This worry makes me worry about them in you know a playoff series right in a postseason run if there’s just not this consistency there how is that going to go and those are the type of things that worry me about this team right now and

You know feel there could be a limit on their ceiling so we’ll see where it goes from here but look good to get a win you now go get a win you should get over the Memphis Grizzlies tonight we’ll see Team makes me dicey nervous at times we’ll

See if they’re capable of beating an 18 win Memphis Grizzlies team here Memphis is 18 and 35 Puget are 31- 22 31- 22 is a good record like I don’t want to kill this team that’s a good record I’m happy that again they are a good team that has

Some flaws and room to grow but we’re getting into the stretch run of the Season like you’ve got to be kind of figuring some of this stuff out now and it feels like the pel aren’t and they’re still going to make the playoffs I would assume but it also feels like this could

Hold them back from a deeper postseason run and more success that we want to see from them so coming up herb Jones appreciation let me know what you think of herb Jones in the comments down below that’s coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked on

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Friday the number one Pelicans podcast breaking down everything you want to know about this Pelicans team subscribe wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube as well and let me know in the comments Down Below on YouTube or on Twitter you can also DM me my DMs are

Open of what you want to hear about next week we got the All-Star break coming up we get to catch our breath a little bit should be a lot of fun um with what’s going to be going on in Indianapolis don’t really know if we’ll see much Pelicans representation if any and

That’s fine by me let everyone get a break and come back feeling refreshed and try and to make a stretch run we’re not going to take any breaks here though because we are your team every day it’s part of the lock on podcast Network so

Let me know what you want to hear about in the beginning part of next week here unlocked on Pelicans so we went over there two games this weekend like I said you know I think to sum it up it’s this right the two deeper issues around this

Team is one like they lack the energy like there’s just some sort of edge something missing from this team it’s just not there hasn’t truly ever been there during this kind of like era they’re just missing this and they feels like they play down to their competition

A lot now they sometimes get wins they haven’t always done that they’ve definitely played down to their competition in years past and they would lose more of those games than you would want but here at least you saw them get wins and they’ve been getting wins so that’s encouraging I’ll give them that

But something feels like it’s missing and it shouldn’t be the the bench providing the kind of that spark plug the the the spark Off the Bench that you need you want your starters to come out and just bring it and for whatever reason this team whether it’s the right

Guy combination guys what have you just doesn’t have it you know the other part is they when other teams play play very physical New Orleans doesn’t really have an answer it’s physical defense on Zion Williamson trying to slow him down but then it can be physical on offense when

They get real aggressive to try and get into the paint Pelicans do a very good job of limiting that not letting teams do that and when you saw in that Lakers game right while the defense was bad they were also hitting a lot of tough

Shots a lot of tough shots in that game and look if they just hit tough shots it comes down to the cliche of it’s a make or Miss league and sometimes it really is as simple is that sometimes guys just hit real tough shots and there isn’t

Anything you can do about it and I thought the Pelicans did a decent job of that but there were so many lapses right of not knowing where guys were not really being able to handle the physicality and just getting taken out of the game essentially letting the W

The Lakers impose their will on this team letting them then do whatever they wanted and that’s not going to get you a lot of Victories you’ve got to have an answer for that you have yonis valunas he’s a physical player Zion is a physical player brinon Ingram is the

Tools and the size to be a physical player herb Jones probably shouldn’t be a physical player because he’ll get for fouls but he can be a physical player too any more of that uh and we’ll see if they kind of develop it over the final you know handful of games as we get

Closer and closer towards the playoffs here one guy though would just mention him herb Jones has been awesome this season I want to point out a couple of things from him you’ve seen a lot of growth from him for his career he’s a 36% shooter from three it’s not a bad

Number wouldn’t call it a good number but this year right now he’s shooting 40.8% from three he’s also Al elevated his free throw percentage at 8 85.1% from his career number of 81.3 by all measures right by all accounts here he’s having like the best season of his career in terms of scoring

The defense is there we know the defense is going to be there but he has just been very very good this season he’s getting to the line in a way that you want him to get to the line slightly less than kind of his career numbers but

He’s been more aggressive and you have games um like you saw from him over the weekend where he can move and he can attack and he’s can score points for you he’s taking more threes than he ever has right an attempt more per game than last season than basically his career numbers

Three and a half attempts per game isn’t like an insane number but he’s doing what you want to see Pelican Shooters do and that’s make teams pay for leaving him open I wouldn’t hate if he starts taking a couple more from the corners he’s been very good this season I thought again

40.8% is excellent numbers here here on Corner 3es let’s see what he’s shooting 42.4% from corner 3es last year he was 32% from there right that’s a 10% jump that’s incredible the his rookie year was 34% from there he’s taking more shot attempts from the corner three spots

Than he has been before too so I think that says a lot about him and what he’s doing um over 50 about 55% let’s call it of his three-point attemp have come from the corners if he’s going to hit those and that’s one of the most efficient

Shots you can get that corner three is shorter than the threes above the break in the three-point line thus making it in theory an easier shot that’s why that corner spot is so important there’s also a lot of what you need here you know Court spacing with that because that

Shot can be so efficient you see a lot of teams at this point in time really committing to defending that shot so it spaces the court for you so herb Jones has done such an incred rible job here and I’ve been very happy with what we’ve seen from him this season particularly

With the shooting like I don’t think that gets talked about enough you know the defense has also just been outstanding him and Dyson have been very good as a pairing Dyson doesn’t have the offense that he does but look when you have a guy that does that and just

Doesn’t get the respect from the referees and is capable of taking on some of the toughest assignments that he does night in night out doesn’t shy away from it loves it is also just humble goes out and works all of that oh I love herb Jones and I hope they

Never trade him basically as simple as that you know we heard some rumors that maybe he was going to be included in trade talks things like that look for the right deal maybe you do but that’s not a Gody that the Pelicans are ever going to be shopping or ever going to be

Looking to move whatsoever so herb Jones appreciation here on Lyra the Loy gr episode of Locked on Pelicans all right that’s going to do it for this episode of Locked on Pelicans appreciate you all listening in enjoy your marig I know I will be too you see me out on the parade

Route say hi I was out hanging out with host of lockon saints R Jackson over the weekend C Terell actually nola.com was also with us that was a lot of fun so please if you say if you see me say hi let me know what’s going on with the

Pelicans it’s been a lot of fun hanging out with y’all and running into people over martyr so let’s keep it going for two more days here and yeah Allstar break coming up let me know what you want to hear talked about on the show questions you have we’ll get them on

Locked on Pelicans part of the lockdown podcast Network your team every day as always I’m your host Jake Madison at Nola Jake on Twitter we’ll be back with you all tomorrow

The New Orleans Pelicans lost to the Los Angeles Lakers but beat the Portland Trail Blazers and in both games two problem were obvious for the Pels. Jake Madison breaks down the lack of energy and how the Pels don’t like physicality. Plus, let’s all appreciate Herb Jones

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