Alvin Gentry on his Pelicans: ‘We are not a good team’
On Wednesday, the Dallas Mavericks rested four of their starters in anticipation of an easy win. That’s something you do against the 76ers, or the Lakers, or the Nets. You know – those teams.
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It turns out that Dallas’ foe on Wednesday, the New Orleans Pelicans, turned out to be one of those teams. Much to the consternation of coach Alvin Gentry. And, frankly, most of the NBA viewing public.
Following what turned out to be a 100-91 loss, with Raymond Felton taking a starring turn, Gentry hit the head of the nail with his postgame comments. From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:
“I don’t have answers, but we’re going to come up with answers. It’s not fair to the fans. It’s not fair to anybody for us to come out and have that kind of effort. It really isn’t. And when I say ‘us’ I mean all of us: coaches, players, everybody. It’s just not good. I’m really disappointed in the way we approached the game. We tried time and time again to say that it doesn’t matter who is playing and who is not playing. Usually in these kinds of situations, guys try to step it up anyway because they are trying to earn extra minutes. And we didn’t react. I wish I knew, but I don’t.”
And … worse:
It’d be easy to surmise that the Pelicans decided to take it easy in the face of a Mavs team working without Dirk Nowitzki, Zaza Pachulia, Deron Williams (who, to be fair, has started just once since Dec. 22) and Wesley Matthews, but NOLA truly seemed to be beat at its best. It’s true that the effort was lacking, Gentry wasn’t speaking in coach’s tongues in this instance, but the Mavs out-executed New Orleans on both ends. This was a legitimate victory for Dallas.
And a legitimate loss for the Pelicans. One that left them at 11-23 and four games outside of the playoff bracket. Felton led Dallas with 22 points, with 12 of those coming in the final 6:47 of the fourth quarter, while NOLA could barely manage a competent effort offensively. The group shot just 37 percent, with starters Alonzo Gee and Omer Asik providing little alongside a combined 4-22 mark from the floor from key benchmen Ryan Anderson, Dante Cunningham, and Norris Cole.
Dallas – entering the game with a 20-15 mark that New Orleans hoped to achieve by this time in the season – was set to punt this game. Coming off of a double-overtime win over Sacramento the night before, two days after a loss at the hands of these same Pelicans, coach Rick Carlisle was correct in sitting his starters in the face of what will be a rough road trip in travel-terms: New Orleans up to Milwaukee, then to Minnesota, back home to take on LeBron’s Cavaliers, then off to Oklahoma City, Chicago, and San Antonio. A day after working in the Spurs’ building? A meeting with the emerging Celtics at home.
This is why you sit the 30-somethings – and a guy in Matthews who is (somewhat miraculously) playing just nine months after an Achilles tear.
New Orleans? They have no such excuse. Luckily, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Between now and the All-Star break, 11 of the team’s 19 games will be played at home, with the refresher of a game against those lowly 76ers coming out of the midseason respite. Just as many of those 19 games will come against sub-.500 opponents, and with 37 wins acting as the going rate for the eighth seed in the West, all is not lost.
It’s pretty damn close, though. This group is the NBA’s third-worst defensive outfit despite starting a seeming defense-first frontcourt in Anthony Davis, Asik, and Gee. Backcourt mates Tyreke Evans and (especially) Eric Gordon seem like relics from another era at this point. Again, Raymond Felton was booed off of his last two teams, and he looked like a world-beater on Wednesday night.
One doesn’t have to be a world-beater to down the Pelicans, we’ve learned, which is unfortunate. It’s true that the Mavericks, playing with house money, took a lot of chances offensively in the win – and that’s always impossible to defend when the lucky breaks break through. That still doesn’t excuse New Orleans coasting through offensive sets or failing to talk defensively.
The team’s tough schedule and early-season spate of injuries doesn’t excuse 11-23, either. General manager Dell Demps hasn’t put together a great team, we know that, but none of this absolves giving up on games with still so much to play for.
Alvin Gentry is right. The Pelicans aren’t a great or even good team right now. And that’s a shame.
(Hat tip on the tweet: Pro Basketball Talk.)
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
