Pelicans Take Hold of 10th Seed After Beating the Rockets on the Road
New Orleans Pelicans 120 - Houston Rockets 107
The Pelicans had a big opportunity tonight to finally claim the elusive 10th seed in the western conference which would currently have them in the play-in tournament. The Houston Rockets stood in the way as they are currently last in the conference and entered the matchup with a 15-36 record. New Orleans simply needed to handle their business tonight and claim their 10th seed. The Rockets only had Eric Gordon miss the night with a heel injury. Gordon has been mentioned as a potential trade target for the Pelicans per recent rumors, but Pelicans fans have been very boisterous about trading for Gordon because of how his last stint with the organization ended. For New Orleans, Garrett Temple and Willy Hernangomez entered the league’s health and safety protocols on Thursday, February 3rd. These absences give big opportunities for other bench unit guys, looking at you Trey Murphy. But enough on the injuries, let’s get into the game.
The Pelicans started the game with a nice set play that gave Jonas Valanciunas an open layup in the paint, but Jae’Sean Tate had a great reaction to the play and blocked Jonas from behind to erase the shot. However, Herb Jones had a similar play where he read the lob pass to Christian Wood and stuffed the pass which lead to a Rockets turnover on their first offensive possession. Defensively, Herb Jones started on Houston’s starting point guard, Kevin Porter Jr., while Josh Hart was tasked with guarding the Rockets leading scorer, Christian Wood who has also been mentioned in some trade rumors lately as we approach the deadline. The first score of the game came from a traditional drive, kick to the corner, and swing to the wing as Brandon Ingram initiated the play and Devonte Graham knocked down the shot. The Pelicans dealt with some early foul trouble as they got three fouls in the first 2.5 minutes of the game as Herb Jones was called for two of the fouls. Jaxson Hayes checked into the first quarter at the power forward position which has worked wonderfully for Willie Green since the Cavaliers game where it was reintroduced the lineup. Jaxson Hayes created an open shot for Ingram as he ran the fastbreak hard cutting towards the rim which drew two Rockets defenders leading Ingram open for a jumpshot along the break. BI did his best Herb Jones impression as he had his toe on the line and drained the long 2-pointer. Porter Jr. had Graham one on one after slowing down the fastbreak and blew right past him for an easy layup as no rim protection was close. Rookie Jalen Green intercepted a Brandon Ingram pass to Valanciunas off a pick and roll after helping off of Josh Hart in the corner. Ingram just did not read Greens help defense correctly as Hart had a wide open corner three on the play. The big story in the first quarter was Jaxson Hayes, however. He finished the quarter with 13 points on 5 for 7 shooting including going 1 for 2 on 3-pointers. Hayes’ one 3-point miss also came near the end of the shot clock where he was passed the ball late and just tried to jack up a stepback 3-pointer which was extremely short - not an airball though. The Pelicans also finished the first quarter with eight assists compared to the Rockets three and a five point lead.
To start the second quarter, New Orleans offense involved a lot of JV post-ups. Valanciunas was a bit hesitant on the post-ups as the first score came from Jonas passing the ball out to Hart at the top of the key who then darted a pass back into the paint to a cutting Trey Murphy for a dunk. The next offensive possession, Jonas tried completing a cross court pass to the opposite corner when Kenyon Martin Jr. intercepted the pass which lead to a Martin Jr. dunk on the other end. Josh Hart had another assist throwing a pass into the paint as rookie center Alperen Sengun and rookie guard Josh Christopher tried switching assignments as the smaller Christopher was stuck on Jonas in the post which lead to an and-one finish for JV. Devonte Graham ran a pick and roll with Valanciunas where the corner defender helped again on the roll-man, and Graham hit Hart for the open 3-pointer unlike BI’s similar possession. Brandon Ingram had another bad possession where he drove into the paint, got caught in the air, and tried kicking out to the perimeter, but the pass ended up being intercepted. The Pelicans also had one possession where they had the 5 on 4 man advantage which was wasted as Devonte Graham was found open in the corner but could not knock it down. The Pelicans ended the first half down 54 to 49.
The first three possessions of the third quarter for the Rockets were centered around trying to get Christian Wood on mismatches as the Pelicans were switching certain matchups throughout most of the game. The first possession lead to a dunk for Wood, but the second and third possessions went better for New Orleans. Wood mishandled the pass on the second play which was lucky, and Devonte Graham was fighting for possession and fronting Wood while Valanciunas was standing near the paint for any quick help defense rotation. Jalen Green had two rough possessions where he air-balled a stepback 3-pointer after getting a switch and then had a reverse layup attempt get blocked by Jonas which lead to a transition and-one layup for Brandon Ingram over Christian Wood which cut the Rockets lead down to one. Jose Alvarado had a nice assist to BI as Jose drove towards the rim, stopped his drive, and BI cut in for a dunk. The Pelicans took advantage of a 5 on 4 man possession where Nickeil Alexander-Walker drained the corner 3-pointer. Alvarado hit a nice floater over Christian Wood which has been such a reliable shot for two-way guard. This was something I noted Kira Lewis Jr. needed to add and was slowly implementing into his game before his unfortunate ACL tear. Kenyon Martin Jr. tried driving from the perimeter on Jaxson Hayes, but Hayes never got beat and ended up blocking Martin’s layup out of bounds. Later, New Orleans had a nice play that lead to a lob pass from BI to Hayes for an easy score in the paint. Brandon Ingram’s playmaking was awesome in the second half of the third quarter which also stemmed from his big scoring burst in the first half of the quarter. New Orleans ended up winning the third 38 to 23.
It was a rough start offensively in the fourth quarter for the Pelicans as a lot of 3-pointers were taken, and none of them were going in. Meanwhile, Garrison Mathews was making his shots throughout the game and his movement shooting is just incredible, definitely has shades of JJ Redick’s shooting especially off of screens. NAW finally made the first basket for New Orleans as he knocked down his own floater in the lane. Jaxson Hayes had a nice coast to coast and-one layup over Alperen Sengun. Next possession, NAW gave up an easy give and go to Josh Christopher which was followed by Hayes scoring again in the paint, this time with a nice adjustment on his layup at the rim. Jaxson Hayes recorded his first back to back 20+ point games of his three-year NBA career after that score. Later in the fourth quarter, when Jonas would post-up, Houston just had lazy and bad double teams. The double team would attack while Jonas is clearly looking at them approaching him or they would just have no urgency to quickly double team him. It was like this throughout most of the game, as well. The game was finally sealed after Josh Hart deflected a pass in the paint intended for Christian Wood that was gathered by the Pelicans which lead to a Brandon Ingram 3-pointer. New Orleans ran out the clock for the rest of the game and secured the 13 point win.
For some key players tonight, Brandon Ingram continues to be incredible but really stepped up his game after halftime and in the third quarter. He finished with 33 points on 12 for 21 shooting from the field and 3 for 5 from 3-point range. BI also finished with 12 assists, having back to back games with 12 assists. The other has to be Jaxson Hayes. I was very critical of him at the beginning of the season, and the coaching staff was too as he was out of the lineup at one point in favor of Willy Hernangomez. Hayes finished the game with 21 points and 7 rebounds while shooting 8 for 10 from the field. Hayes also finished the game with a +14 while Ingram was a +16. Besides the second quarter, it was an overall good win and effort. New Orleans next game is Tuesday night at the Blender against the Houston Rockets again at 7:00.