There will not be a parade, or even a party. There will not be a banner, or even some balloons. Yet the New Orleans Pelicans were OK with acknowledging their status Thursday afternoon as the Western Conference’s first-place team through 7 1/2 weeks of the regular season, representing a complete 180 from a 3-16 start last season.
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“We’re all thankful to be in this position,” Pelicans second-year head coach Willie Green said after Thursday’s practice of leading the West at 16-8. “We have a ton of great guys on the team that want to buy in to what we want to accomplish. It’s a great position to be in early in the season. We just want to continue to build from here.”
New Orleans split its first dozen games, but eight of those contests were on the road and three of the six defeats came in overtime. Since Nov. 12, the Pelicans have gone 10-2, including 8-1 in the Smoothie King Center.
“It means we’ve done what we’re supposed to do,” forward/center Larry Nance Jr. said Thursday of the club’s start. “There is nobody in this building that’s surprised right now. When we were 6-6, you had a bunch of guys who were irritated at being that. (Now) we’re carrying on with business as usual. It’s great to see us atop the standings, but there is no award for being first in December.”
“Business as usual” in this instance also means getting ready for a compelling two-game home series this weekend vs. second-place Phoenix (16-9), starting with Friday’s 7:30 p.m. tip-off. Nance noted that as much as he would like to enjoy the Pelicans’ status at the top of the West ladder, there’s no time for that.
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“It’s cool to see it,” Nance said of first place. “If we had two days off, I might take a day to revel in it, but we don’t get a day. We have one of our rivals coming into this building (Friday) and Sunday. All these guys want to do is (focus on) we have a good opportunity to cement that No. 1 spot.”
New Orleans was 23-36 at the All-Star break last season, but went 13-10 in the second half to gain a berth in the West play-in tournament, where the Pelicans knocked out San Antonio and the LA Clippers, before a hard-fought first-round playoff defeat vs. Phoenix in six games.
“It took a lot of work for all of us to sort of climb out of a hole,” Green said, referring to last season. “We got healthy toward the end of the season, we made a great run. This (start to 2022-23) is a continuation of what this team did last season. Extremely privileged, grateful and blessed to be in this position. We’re definitely celebrating where we are, knowing we still have work to do.”
“I don’t want these guys to get too high on it, because it’s just December,” Nance said. “But at the same time, it’s an accomplishment we do need to recognize, and know (being in first place is also) a target on our back now.”