By the numbers: Anthony Davis third in PER
By: Jim Eichenhofer, Pelicans.com, @Jim_Eichenhofer
New Orleans went 1-1 over the past seven days in an unusually light schedule, moving to 10-10 overall on the 2013-14 regular season. The Pelicans are in 11th place in the brutally competitive Western Conference, in the middle of a standings logjam that consists of numerous teams hovering around .500. Here’s a look at some of the telling numbers related to Pelicans players this week:
STARTERS Jrue Holiday: 4 Times the point guard has registered double digits in assists over the past 11 games, a stretch in which the Pelicans have gone 7-4. During the team’s 3-6 start to the regular season, Holiday only posted 10-plus assists once. The Pelicans are 5-0 when Holiday reaches that assist plateau.
Eric Gordon: 5 Times the shooting guard has made at least half of his shots in the past 11 games. Prior to that, Gordon shot below 50 percent from the field in each of the first nine contests. Gordon also has two of his top three scoring games this season since Thanksgiving.
Al-Farouq Aminu: 14.7 Rebounding average for the small forward in the past three games, including a dominant 20-board performance vs. Dallas on Dec. 4 that equaled his career high. Aminu did not collect double-digit rebounds in any of the first 17 games, but has done it every game since.
Ryan Anderson: 6 Current place in the NBA’s three-point percentage leaders after a rare below-average shooting performance Wednesday vs. Detroit (4-for-12 from beyond the arc). Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are the only NBA players averaging more three-point attempts per game than Anderson.
Jason Smith: 100 Percentage of Smith’s top-three career rebounding games he’s authored since Dec. 2. Over Smith’s six-year NBA career, his best rebounding tallies in a single game are 12 (Dec. 6 vs. Oklahoma City), 14 (Dec. 2 at Chicago) and 16 (last night vs. Detroit). All of those games occurred in the past 10 days.
Anthony Davis: 3 Place in the entire NBA for the currently-injured Davis in John Hollinger’s Player Efficiency Rating (PER). The only players who rank above Davis’ figure of 28.28 are LeBron James (28.95) and Brook Lopez (28.46).
RESERVES Tyreke Evans: 20 Number of games Evans has played this season (out of 20). The 6-foot-6, 220-pounder missed 17 games last season to injury in his final campaign with Sacramento, but played 63 of 66 games during the lockout-shortened 2011-12 year.
Lou Amundson: 4.5 Offensive rebounds per 36 minutes this season for Amundson (according to Basketball-Reference.com). second-best on New Orleans. Jeff Withey is leading the Pelicans in this statistic at 4.8. Davis (4.0) and Aminu (3.4) are next in the team rundown.
Anthony Morrow: 58.6Percentage for Morrow on three-point attempts when he shoots from the left wing or right corner (17-for-29), his two hot spots according to NBA.com/Stats. From every other segment of the floor beyond the arc, Morrow is 4-for-18 (22.2 percent).
Austin Rivers: 18 Minutes played by Rivers in Wednesday’s OT win over Detroit, his season high. The 18 minutes were more than Rivers had logged in the previous six games combined (a total of 10 in appearances against the Knicks and Thunder, along with four DNPs).
Brian Roberts: 20Consecutive free throws made by the backup point guard, a streak that dates back to April of last season. He’s 12-for-12 in 2013-14, after connecting on his final eight free throws of 2012-13. Roberts has not missed a foul shot since the second quarter of a March 31 game vs. Cleveland.