Last season was New Orleans’ best in a decade, but there was at least one area of disappointment: the team’s home record in the Smoothie King Center, 24-17. During the ’18 offseason, Alvin Gentry frequently mentioned that better protecting homecourt was a major objective for the Pelicans. One month into the regular season, New Orleans should be very pleased with the progress it’s made, after improving to 7-1 on Saturday.
Perhaps the Pelicans’ most impressive home win so far occurred Saturday, as they dominated the second half and prevailed comfortably against a Nuggets team that started this season 9-1. Four different New Orleans players contributed 19-plus points, led by a second straight monster night from Anthony Davis (43 points, eight rebounds, eight assists) on his home floor.
Speaking of Davis and home games, the Pelicans are 7-0 this season when Davis plays. Dating back to last season, they’ve won 12 of the past 13 games involving Davis, with the lone exception being Game 4 of the ’18 Western Conference semifinals vs. Golden State.
IT WAS OVER WHEN…
Davis missed a close-range shot, but collected his own rebound and dunked the ball with two hands, giving New Orleans a 12-point lead with 2:10 remaining. It also gave Davis 40 points, the second straight night he tallied 40-plus. E’Twaun Moore tacked on a dagger three-pointer with less than two minutes left to return the Pelicans to a lead of a dozen points.
PELICANS PLAYER OF THE GAME
Nikola Mirotic started ’18-19 in stupendous fashion, with 30-plus points in the first two games, wins over Houston and Sacramento. Since then, he’s been trying to get back into a groove. Perhaps he took a step toward that this weekend, including scoring 20 points Saturday and going 3/7 from three-point range. He entered Saturday’s game at just 31.5 percent from the arc (29/92), well below his career norm. Mirotic closed last regular season red-hot, something he carried into a fantastic performance vs. Portland in Round 1 of the playoffs.
POSITIONAL FOCUS: POINT GUARD
The unfortunate news of Elfrid Payton requiring surgery on a broken left finger means the Pelicans are back to Plan B in terms of this position. On Saturday, one very positive sign was New Orleans only committed 11 turnovers, a problem area that has contributed greatly to a few losses in recent weeks. Jrue Holiday registered 19 points and eight assists, while Davis also helped in the playmaking category with eight assists of his own. Ian Clark played some of his 22 minutes at point guard and dished out five assists, which was a season high (his previous most was three dimes).
BY THE NUMBERS
34: New Orleans free throw attempts, making 31 of those. Davis was 20/21, missing his first try but then sinking 20 in a row. Interestingly, Denver only committed five more fouls than New Orleans, but only made 13 trips to the charity stripe.
29: Pelicans assists, including six different players dishing at least two.
20-10: New Orleans advantage in fast-break points. At one stage it was 17-0 in that category.