Pelicans Survive Jrue Holiday's Career Night Against Depleted Bucks - Plus some thoughts on the current Covid situation in the NBA
New Orleans Pelicans 116 - Milwaukee Bucks 112
The Pelicans faced a Bucks roster that had 8 players out due to injury or health and safety protocols. Brook Lopez has been out with back surgery after experiencing back pain after opening night, and Semi Ojeleye has been out with a calf injury. Now a quick Bucks Covid tale, Wesley Matthews was the first player to enter health and safety protocols on December 11th after being signed by the Milwaukee on December 3rd. Matthews rejoins the Bucks after spending last season with the Los Angeles Lakers. Then in the span of 4 days, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Donte DiVincenzo, Bobby Portis, Khris Middleton, and Thanasis Antetokounmpo were all declared out after getting Covid or entering the health and safety protocols, I guess the NBA rather not directly say players are getting Covid. The NBA has seen a major surge in cases recently, having more cases this year than last year including 35 players entering healthy and safety protocols in the past 4 days. The most players listed out with Covid last year in one day was 5. Players, like Joel Embiid, have questioned the protocols and daily routine the NBA has set this year compared to last such as less testing and looser masks policies. Some people have recommended the NBA not test players unless they show symptoms of Covid or just pause the season again. You would think the NBA would step up and do something different eventually instead of being fairly silent on the entire situation. The Hornets were the first team I noticed with a major outbreak when they had five players out with health and safety protocols. The Bulls and Nets have had around seven or eight players out to where these teams were playing games with the minimum number of players allowed, eight. It’s also odd how the health and safety protocols work. Lebron James and Russell Westbrook were placed in the health and safety protocols but were later removed after “receiving multiple negative tests”. I guess they were just allowed to take a bunch of tests because they did not have symptoms, and it was an assumed false positive. But five players on the Lakers are out with Covid, so wouldn’t it be safe to keep Westbrook out for a day or two to make sure? Also, Lebron entered the safety protocols on November 30th which is almost two weeks before Avery Bradley tested positive for Covid. The Celtics earlier today had Al Horford and Grant Williams listed as out with Covid and played the Warriors tonight, but both teams skipped shoot around because apparently you can spread Covid during shoot around but not during an NBA game when you are playing and breathing much harder? On November 8th, The NBA issued a statement advising all players, coaches, and referees to receive booster shots against Covid. One of my theories is that most players got the Johnson and Johnson vaccine since it was only one shot but not as effective as the two shot vaccines that is a reason we are seeing such an uptick. Also, the Nets want to bring Kyrie Irving back since they have so many guys out from Covid, but if he is still not vaccinated. Wouldn’t he be just as likely to get Covid, if not more, than the rest of the team? Also, he still is not allowed to play in home games or games at the Knicks and Raptors. I would say the league has to change something, but the Christmas Day games are only a week away so it might be too late to make any drastic changes to lower the spread of Covid currently going through the league. My issue is most people do not pay attention to the NBA until Christmas day which makes it such a big day for the league as they always showcase great teams, players, and match-ups on the holiday, but now you can have games that are missing your big stars or role players that make these teams and games so competitive and good. The NFL is also experiencing their own issues with Covid right now as well as they enter into the final stretch of the regular season and fight for playoff seeding. The NHL has began postponing games and has even proposed pausing the season for the holidays. Definitely something to pay attention to in the coming days and maybe weeks. Rant over, the Pelicans did not have any notable injuries tonight. Let’s get into the game.
Willie Green placed Herb Jones as the primary defender for Jrue Holiday who was the clear and only real shot creator the Bucks had available tonight. Jrue also started the game guarding Brandon Ingram which is not much of a surprise either. Offensively, Herb was great starting with one nice drive off the dribble that drew a foul and drawing another foul on a fastbreak attempt by putting his shoulder down into another former Pelican, Demarcus “Boogie” Cousins. Herb also had two great off-ball cuts into the paint for scores, and this was all within the first 4.5 minutes of the game. However, Jones was responsible for the first turnover of the game at 7:12 left in the first quarter. Josh Hart threw a skip pass to Herb in the opposite corner, but Herb was already looking to make the next pass and had the ball go through his hands. The Bucks were using a lot of pick and pops throughout the game to space out Jonas Valanciunas, but in the first quarter neither Cousins or backup center Sandro Mamukelashvili, good luck pronouncing that, were making their 3-point shots. Jrue Holiday started the game pretty rough going 0 for 6 from the field before making his first basket. It was a lot of difficult mid-range jumpers like when he was struggling in the finals last season. Herb was using his length to disrupt Jrue early, and Satoransky had some good defensive possessions on Holiday using his length as well. With about 3 minutes left in the first quarter, Milwaukee went into a 2-3 zone which was their main defensive scheme for over half the game. In previous seasons, one of the main complaints about Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer was that he would never deviate from his base offense of protecting the rim and limit free throws in favor of giving up open 3-pointers especially above the break. The zone really stumped the Pelicans when they had their BI, NAW, Temple, Sato, and Willy lineup which I criticized last game. Willie Green did not play the lineup as many minutes as he played Josh Hart slightly longer before subbing in Garrett Temple and replacing Sato with Devonte Graham to give more shooting to counter the zone. The one thing about Sato is he always does realize the zone early and will cut to the free throw line to break it, but I cannot remember the last time he hit a jump shot. But to be fair, no one really hit a jump shot in the first quarter as the Pelicans finished the quarter 0 for 8 from 3-point range while most of the attempts were taken after Coach Bud implemented the zone. About half of the 3-point attempts were not even good looks as most had a hand in the face from a Bucks player closed out.
Jonas started the second quarter to almost break the zone by just getting offensive rebounds as the Bucks rested their only two bigs with a small lineup, but the young Pelican guards could not get JV the ball for post-ups either. I do not understand not feeding JV the ball in the post when BI is sitting, he is clearly the best offense anyone can create besides maybe Josh Hart driving to the hoop. Also, Valanciunas being able to not be a liability defensively was pretty huge tonight as he had so much gravity in that Bucks zone. You can contribute that to Giannis and so many other pieces of this team being out with Covid but still. Garrett Temple had a bad turnover where he just dropped a pass thrown right to him, but on the next possession, former LSU guard Javonte Smart, currently on a two-way contract, dribbled the ball off of his foot. Devonte Graham finally made his first 3-pointer at 8:17 left in the second quarter with many more to come. The biggest note I had in the second quarter was Nickeil’s shot selection. NAW finished the game with 12 points on 17 shots while shooting 2 for 10 from 3-point range and not even attempting a free throw. Even some of his makes, like his stepback one-legged mid-range shot, are not good shot attempts, you are just glad that they went in. With how good he is at finishing around the rim, again when they are smart takes, you would want him to draw some more fouls, too. He did whip another good cross court pass to BI for a 3 as Sato gave Ingram an off-ball screen while the Bucks were in zone and doubling JV in the post on the strong side of the court. At 4:06 in the second quarter, Josh Hart gave Cousins his third foul of the game and sent him back to the bench. Trey Murphy checked in at 3:56, and he had a nice cut to the paint after Valanciunas was doubled and then swung a pass to Herb Jones for a 3. Herb made both of his long jumpers as he continues to put his toe on the 3-point line on most of jumpers somehow. Honestly, I don’t really care as long as he can hit that shot consistently. Jrue Holiday began heating up towards the end of the second quarter by just getting a smaller Pelicans guard on a switch and backing them into the post for an easy mid-range. Later in the game, Willie Green and the team did adjust this by just having the small guard show and then rush back to their original man - something Steph Curry used to do a lot against the Lebron Cleveland teams. Holiday ended the first half with 15 points on 7 for 16 shooting, but he was 0 for 3 on his 3-pointers.
The first possession of the second half was a Valanciunas post-up for a bucket. Pat Connaughton was real aggressive on JV in the post and even the entry passes which will come up later in the game. Herb had another great cut in the third quarter, and his cutting will also be brought up later. Jones also poked the ball free from Cousins after a rebound and got free throws going back up for the second chance points. Jrue’s offensive game was still pretty good to start the second half as Boogie would set good screens on Herb who still struggles to get around them at times - again that is really my only complaint on Herb’s defense and it’s pretty nit picky. Herb did get one steal on Jrue that lead to a foul on the fastbreak. Jones caught one pass at the perimeter, then drove and kicked to Graham for a 3. After this little stretch, I noted that this might be Herb’s best overall game so far this season because his offense was so good. After Cousins checked out, the Bucks went back to the 2-3 zone, but the Pelicans did get into the bonus with 5:39 left in the third quarter. Grayson Allen heated up later in the third quarter to tie the game. He hit two 3’s in a row when NAW was just not fighting over the off-ball screens, but once the second 3 went down, NAW picked up his effort. Mamukelashvili hit one open 3 when Josh Hart hesitated on his rotation, and then the big man hit another after Temple and JV had a miscommunication on another pick and pop. Devonte Graham hit two big 3’s to stop the Bucks run and get the crowd back into the game, and his shooting was huge throughout the game.
Josh Hart had a pretty good game tonight, but he was one of the better entry passers for JV tonight. Grayson Allen came off the bench in the fourth quarter and tied the game up. He ran along the baseline, and Cousins screened Hart causing Josh to slip as he tried to rush on the closeout. NAW had one possession where he just kind of collapsed and turned the ball over, but Hart and Herb rushed back on the fastbreak and stopped the score as Herb went straight up on the contest. Devonte Graham had two great paint rotations. The first he drew a charge on Demarcus Cousins as he rolled to the rim. The call was challenged and overturned to a block, but it was still the right idea. The other, Connaughton drove to the paint, and Graham jumped straight up to force the miss while not fouling him. Josh Hart had another great fastbreak possession. He saved a long rebound from going out of bounds, runs back into the play, gets the ball, drives to the hoop, and kicks out to another big Graham 3-pointer.
A little play-by-play of the final minutes of the game:
In the final 2 minutes of the fourth quarter, Jrue had two free throws to cut the Pelicans lead to only 1. Josh Hart forced a bad pass to JV in the paint for a fastbreak score for Jordan Nwora. The Pelicans had a pretty bad offensive possession that was saved by a long Devonte Graham 3-pointer to retake the lead. Next possession, Jrue Holiday worked his way to under the rim where Jonas blocked his layup attempt. Graham, feeling himself a bit, ran a pick and roll with Valanciunas but airballed the 3-point attempt. Now with 47.5 seconds left in the fourth, Temple is subbed in for JV defensively to switch, but Jrue made a layup over Temple after muscling him into the paint to tie the game. Brandon Ingram elected to have an iso attempt on the Pelicans last offensive possession, drove into the paint and kicked out to Josh Hart. Hart was being guarded by Jrue in the corner and got Jrue in the air on a pump fake but missed the mid-range shot. NOLA had two timeouts at this point, and I thought Willie Green should have used one here to come up with a play call, but maybe since Jrue was guarding Josh in the corner, he rather BI go against literally anyone else. Jrue Holiday tried to win the game with a game-winning 3 but just missed which sent the game into overtime.
To start overtime, the Bucks zone was still stifling the Pelicans until Josh Hart hit NAW with a skip pass in the corner for a 3. Hart then hit a floater in the paint late in the shot clock to save a fairly ugly possession. Devonte Graham hit yet another deep 3 while the Bucks were still in their zone. He finished the game with 26 points shooting 8 for 12 from the field and 8 for 12 from 3-point range, nothing but 3’s. But he was a total zone buster for the Pelicans tonight, both he and Herb were huge. Towards the end of overtime, Jrue hits a mid-range shot over Josh Hart to tie the game with 50 seconds left. Here, Willie Green calls his first timeout of overtime and comes up with a play that lead to a Herb layup after a cut, but I don’t think the play was meant for Herb. Graham inbounds the ball to BI and runs along the baseline to the opposite corner, so it was only BI and JV on the left side of the court with Graham in the corner, Hart near the break, and Herb near the top of the key. JV and BI look to run a pick and roll, but Jonas slips the screen, and BI passes him the ball near the elbow. Well Grayson Allen sank into the paint as he was guarding Hart, George Hill was with Graham in the corner, and Connaughton was guarding Herb, but Connaughton also dropped down to JV to where he was basically triple teamed by Connaughton, Allen, and Mamukelashvili who was Jonas’ main defender. Herb, yet again, cuts as Pat Connaughton drops and overhelps on a JV post-up and makes the layup as Grayson Allen is too late to contest Herb’s shot attempt. I think the plan was for Herb to slide to the left side and have Hart and Graham on the right side of the court with only George Hill to guard the two as Grayson Allen, Hart’s defender, would be in the paint double teaming Jonas. Maybe that was too wordy but oh well, watch the play for yourselves to see what I am trying to talk about. On the Bucks last possession, they didn’t create any sort of advantage early in the shot clock so Budenholzer calls a timeout with 8 seconds on the shot clock. They give Jrue Holiday an iso possession against Josh Hart, but Hart kept sliding his feet and stayed in front of Jrue and forced the miss on the mid-range shot. The Pelicans survive Jrue Holiday’s career high 40 points as he shot 18 for 36 from the field and 1 for 8 from 3-point range.
Overall a great win by the starters who all scored double digits. The Pelicans next game is Sunday at 7:00 in Philadelphia against the 76ers.