The New Orleans Pelicans still haven’t won two games in a row this season after losing to the Houston Rockets 122-116 Monday at the Smoothie King Center. Here was the good, the bad and the Ball from the contest.
The Good: The wings
With both Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram — the Pelicans’ leading scorer — sidelined for Monday night’s matchup against the Rockets, New Orleans needed a balanced scoring effort from their team and they got just that, particularly from their shooting guards.
JJ Redick and Josh Hart scored a combined 43 points, with Redick leading the way for the Pelicans with 24 points, including seven 3-pointers. Hart, who started at small forward with Ingram out, also got hot from behind the arc, draining four 3-pointers in six tries.
Unfortunately, the starting shooting guard on the Rockets is pretty good, too. In 38:16, James Harden scored a game-high 39 points on 52% shooting from the field despite going 3-11 from behind the arc. He also dished out nine assists, which was two short of Jrue Holiday’s game-high 11 assists.
The Pelicans put up a good fight for most of the game, but it’s hard to compete against a team with two superstars when you have none and injuries to key players. Giving up 122 points didn’t help their cause, either.
The Bad: The defense
The Pelicans have had the same problem all season and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. I’m, of course, talking about their defense.
New Orleans let Houston score two points above their season average (120.1) on Monday despite holding them to just 16 fast break points. Their season average going into Monday night’s game was 20.4 points.
Guarding Harden and Westbrook is no easy task, especially with Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram out, but it’s something 28 other teams have to manage and they didn’t.
The Ball
Lonzo Ball sat out of Monday’s game with a adductor strain. He’ll be re-evaluated on Tuesday.