The Bad: The mentality
Alvin Gentry said the team was treating Sunday’s game like a Game 7. Instead, they were run off the court early in the first quarter and lacked anything resembling a Game 7 mentality.
It’s been the same old song and dance for the Pelicans inside the bubble as slow starts have doomed them. Including Sunday’s game, the Pelicans trailed three of their six games by nine points or more in the first quarter and by at least seven points in five of those games.
Spare for a handful of quarters across their six games, the Pelicans hardly ever resembled a side fighting for a playoff spot. The sense of urgency that most would expect a team with their playoff lives on the one to have was never there for New Orleans despite repeated opportunities to showcase it.
Honorable mentions: Non-JJ Redick three-point shooting, the starters in the first half