A short-handed team, playing without multiple key players in October and November, stumbles out of the gate, digging what seems like an insurmountable hole.
If you’re a New Orleans fan and that sounds like a familiar story, there’s good reason. At the outset of each of the past two NBA seasons, the Pelicans have started poorly, at 0-6 (and later 1-11) in 2015-16 and 0-8 this time. However, in a completely unexpected development – particularly for a Western Conference team that’s rarely benefited from good fortune in recent years – New Orleans still has a chance in ’16-17 to author a better ending than last spring’s 30-52 finish. With the West at its thinnest competitively in roughly two decades, at the season’s midway point, the Pelicans (16-25) are just 1.5 games out of the eighth and final playoff seed. Portland (18-24) leads a pack of teams that have had plenty of early-season woes, but still haven’t abandoned hopes of becoming a postseason qualifier. No team in the West has reached the playoffs with a losing record since the 1996-97 Clippers, but that streak could come to an end in April.
Exactly halfway through the New Orleans Pelicans’ 2016-17 season, here’s a look back at some of the highs and lows so far:
BEST FIRST-HALF STORYLINE En route to his fourth straight All-Star appearance, Anthony Davis has made another big leap forward, playing at a level that has wowed, even by his lofty standards. At just 23, the power forward/center is frequently putting up historic numbers, becoming a common start to the sentence “Anthony Davis is the first NBA player since (retired legend)” to achieve some individual stat line that hasn’t been posted in decades. Davis provided a signs of things to come in the season’s first week, when he put up 50 points in the opener vs. Denver, then had 45 two nights later against Golden State. He’s had three other games of 40-plus points since, averaging a career-best 29.3 points. He’s also putting up a career high in rebounds (12.3 rpg) and leading the NBA in blocks again (2.60 bpg).
WORST FIRST-HALF STORYLINE It’s difficult not to look back and rue the first three weeks of the season, because if New Orleans had been able to play even close to .500 ball, the Pelicans would be in a much different position at midseason than they are now. New Orleans has been virtually a break-even team since Jrue Holiday made his season debut in mid-November, at 14-15 overall, including 14-12 when Holiday is on the floor. However, the Pelicans started 2-10 prior to getting Holiday back in uniform. It would be one thing if New Orleans was simply outplayed and outmanned during that stretch, but it sustained multiple what-could-have-been defeats. During the 0-8 start, the Pelicans lost by five points or less, or in overtime, four times.
TEAM MVP Davis. Obviously. The University of Kentucky product is having such an outstanding season that the only player with a higher player-efficiency rating than Davis’ 28.47 is Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook (29.70), who’s compiled his own record-breaking year and drawing comparisons to old-school triple-double machine Oscar Robertson. As Pelicans second-year head coach Alvin Gentry has noted several times lately, the only thing realistically keeping Davis out of the MVP conversation is more victories. Amid the unique accomplishments of players such as Westbrook and Houston’s James Harden, Davis’ season could get lost in the shuffle later, but it’s worth noting that a player who was already an All-NBA first team member in 2014-15 has gotten even better.
UNSUNG HERO As a Baton Rouge native, Langston Galloway already had a bit of a head start on the team’s offseason additions in terms of popularity among area fans, but the way he’s performed in fourth quarters – particularly in the Smoothie King Center – has added fuel to the local love. An affordable free-agent signee after two solid but unheralded seasons with New York, Galloway is the Pelicans’ most prolific and clutch three-point marksman, connecting on 75 trifectas in 40 appearances. He’s made nearly half of those in fourth quarters, going 36 of 72, a 50.0 percent rate that is tied for second in the NBA (Indiana’s C.J. Miles leads the league at 30 of 59, or 50.8 percent). The St. Joseph’s product has drained three or more three-pointers in 13 separate games, including twice sinking six.
IN-SEASON MOST IMPROVED PLAYER
Rookie lottery pick Buddy Hield’s debut season has often mirrored that of his team, featuring a very slow start, followed by a much better December and early January. One of the NCAA’s premier scorers and shooters, Hield led Oklahoma to a Final Four appearance as a college senior last spring and figured to immediately be able to contribute, but he shot just 23.7 percent from three-point range through Nov. 30. Since then, despite two rough outings Thursday and Saturday, the 23-year-old is 48/101 on trifectas (47.5 percent, almost exactly doubling his rate). Next on Hield’s to-do list is to raise his overall field-goal percentage – he’s at just 40.6 percent on two-point shots.
BEST TEAM PERFORMANCE The Pelicans’ biggest scoring output in regulation was 117 points vs. Minnesota on Nov. 23. Their stingiest defensive performance came Dec. 23 vs. Miami, when they allowed just 87 points. But in terms of most impressive victory based on the opponent, you have to go with a 102-98 win over the Clippers on Dec. 28. Chris Paul returned for Los Angeles from injury on that night and helped spearhead the visitors to leads after each of the first three quarters, but New Orleans eventually erased its deficit and held a 26-21 edge in the fourth. Davis “only” tallied 20 points and five rebounds, but teamwide contributions were enough to notch an upset, as six different Pelicans mustered double-digit points.
MOST MEMORABLE GAME There was plenty to choose from early in the campaign, as the Pelicans oddly went to overtime five times in their first 25 games. The most recent of those extra-time contests occurred Dec. 11, when New Orleans outlasted Phoenix 120-119. It looked pretty bleak for the visitors at several stages, including when they fell behind by 15 points in the second half. Tim Frazier provided a unique highlight by registering a triple-double (14 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists), the first of his three-year NBA career.