The Pelicans Lose Hard Fought Game To Golden St 128-120 & Drop To 0-2

New Orleans, LA- The New Orleans Pelicans faced off against the defending champion Golden St Warriors Friday night at The Smoothie King Center with a capacity crowd of over 18k. The Pelicans loss their second strait game of the season 128-120. New Orleans had a solid first quarter against Golden St out scoring them 39-26 & evening knocking down a record eleven 3 pointers in the first half.

The problem is you’ll be hard pressed to beat the Golden St Warriors by out shooting them from the three-point line. The Pells played hard against the Warriors but faded down the stretch. They shot the ball a heck of a lot better this game than against Memphis Wednesday night. The Pells shot 45-98 from the field (45.9%) and 16-36 (44.4%) from downtown. Anthony Davis scored 35 pts 17 rebs on 15-21 shooting from the field, 3-4 for 3-pt land in 40 mins.

DeMarcus Cousins played very well again scoring 35 pts 14 rebs in 33 mins for New Orleans. Jrue Holiday continued to struggle this week scoring 13 pts 6 rebs in 35 mins of action but what made this game out of range was the Warriors hot shooting. The Warriors shot 47-91 (51.6%) from the field & 18-40 (45%) from 3.

The Golden St Warriors All World guards Curry & Thompson scored 28 & 31 plus Kevin Durant’s 22 made it difficult for New Orleans to keep up. The Pells allowed once again to many easy lay-ups & uncontested shots against the defending champions. The thing that really could have helped the Pelicans were free throws! The Pells reverted back to their terrible free throwing shooting selves converting 14-22 (63.6%).

Maybe shooting better from the charity stripe, better play from others not named DeMarcus Cousins or Anthony Davis would have resulted in a win. Their were some plus’s in this game for New Orleans to look at 1) they rebounded Golden St 57-50 2) they scored 50 pts in the paint but so did Golden St & 3) they almost matched the warriors with three pointers 16-18.  The Pelicans bench outscored the Warriors bench 31-29 for a final bonus stat to no avail.

The reality is the Pells still allow way to many easy lay ups & uncontested shots. Jrue Holiday & The Others aren’t contributing on the scoring end to take some pressure of the big 2 in the post. The need for converting FREE THROWS at the charity stripe was lacking tonight, a better effort here would have changed the complexion of the game.

Now the only thing guaranteed is the fact that the Pells start the season off in an 0-2 hole once again. The next team up versus the Pells are the Los Angeles Lakers 10/22 8 pm in L.A.