The New Orleans Pelicans did their best, but they couldn’t slow down James Harden and the Houston Rockets without Brandon Ingram.
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.
James Harden had 19 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter as the Houston Rockets won their fourth straight game on Monday in New Orleans.
Superstar Houston Rockets guard James Harden was named Western Conference Player of the Week earlier Monday, and he followed that up with 39 points and nine assists just a few hours later in New Orleans as the Rockets defeated the Pelicans, 122-116 (box score).
It’s the fourth straight win for the Rockets, who are now a season-best four games over .500 at 7-3. With the loss, the Pelicans fall to 2-8.
Harden started cold with just 2 points in the first quarter and hit only 3-of-11 (27.3%) on three-pointers, down from 43.1% over his last three games. But the former NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) got going by attacking the rim, with 10 makes in 14 attempts inside the arc.
Of Harden’s 39 points, 28 came in the second half and 19 in the fourth quarter. In one sequence, he scored 15 consecutive Houston points.
Capela also recorded 20+ rebounds in consecutive games last season. Prior to that, the last Rockets player to do so was Charles Barkley — way back in November 1996.
Eric Gordon posted by far his most efficient game of the season off the Houston bench, scoring 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting and 4-of-7 (57.1%) from three-point range. The Rockets especially needed Gordon’s contributions after starting small forward Danuel House Jr. left the game early with a back contusion.
Eric Gordon heating up. He’s hit three 3-pointers in 3 consecutive games.
A way #Rockets have gotten him going is through using him as a back screener in Spain pick-and-roll. He sets a back screen, then pops out to the perimeter. He’s getting open shots, deep ones too, in rhythm pic.twitter.com/bE9pAW8FK6
The Pelicans were led by 24 points from veteran guard J.J. Redick, who hit 7-of-15 (46.7%) from three-point range.
After Monday’s win, the Rockets flew back to Houston, where they will host the Los Angeles Clippers (6-3) on Wednesday. With Kawhi Leonard and potentially Paul George leading the visitors, the Rockets could certainly use House’s athleticism and defensive versatility. In postgame remarks, head coach Mike D’Antoni said House “should be okay,” but did not commit to his immediate availability.
After an offseason shooting emphasis, Austin Rivers’ three-point percentage has risen from 32.1% to 43.8% in his second year with the Rockets.
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Now in his second year with the Houston Rockets, guard Austin Rivers entered the 2019-20 NBA season hoping that an offseason emphasis on long-range shooting would pay off.
As of Monday, it seems to have gone exactly as planned.
Through the new season’s first nine games, the 6-foot-3 guard is shooting a career-best 43.8% on three-pointers on an average of 3.6 attempts per game. That percentage is up significantly from his 32.1% in 47 games with the Rockets last regular season.
In Houston’s last two games entering Monday, which were blowout victories over the Golden State Warriors and Chicago Bulls, Rivers connected on 6-of-7 shots (85.7%) from behind the arc.
Overall, Rivers is averaging 6.8 points and 2.3 rebounds per game. His nightly minutes are down from 28.6 last year to 20.2 this season, but that’s not because the 27-year-old isn’t playing well. Unlike a season ago, when Rivers was signed in late December following a multi-week injury to Chris Paul, newly acquired guard Russell Westbrook has been much more durable, as expected.
One of the trickle-down effects of Westbrook’s superior durability is less minutes for reserve guards, relative to the Paul years. But Rivers is making the most of his opportunities, and so are the Rockets — who have now won three straight games to improve to 6-3 on the season.
Last year, Rivers’ three-point efficiency rose from 32.1% in the regular season to 45.7% in 11 postseason games, and he said in September that continued shooting improvement was one of his primary points of emphasis to best fit alongside Westbrook and James Harden.
That’s all I’ve been working on this summer. You’ve got to understand, I’m playing with two of the most elite guards in the league. A lot of attention is going to be on them.
So for me personally, playing with them this year… everybody knows I can score one on one and stuff like that. But my goal is to really be a knockdown shooter to help them with space, and then on defense to give them a break, because I want to guard the best player on every team.
So far, so good. But even if that blistering 43.8% clip through nine games isn’t totally sustainable, it should be noted that Rivers shot 37.1% and 37.8% on three-pointers with the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons, with both coming on relatively high volume at 4.0 and 5.9 attempts per game.
In other words, it’s actually the 2018-19 campaign at 32% that appears to be the outlier for Rivers, since he has been at 37% or better in every other year over his last four NBA seasons. Over a full season, that type of accuracy could be huge for the Rockets, given the historic rate at which Houston attempts three-pointers under Mike D’Antoni.
It hasn’t all been perfect for Rivers, whose defensive rating is currently at 118.6 after being at 108.1 with Houston last season. Thus, even though his offensive rating has jumped from 112.9 to 116.3, his overall net rating has actually declined from 2.5 to -2.3. Off-ball awareness has at times been a problem.
But at 27 years old, there’s no reason to think that Rivers’ skillset as a quality isolation defender versus quick guards — shown in the playoffs against Stephen Curry, who shot just 40.3% overall and 27.9% on three-pointers versus Houston — has declined. With time, his defensive showings should revert back to career norms.
The falloff in Rivers’ defensive metrics from a year ago might also reflect that Houston’s bench unit is now led by Westbrook, who historically is a worse defender than Paul. With time, their chemistry as a unit and knowledge of each other’s tendencies should improve.
I want to be be one of the best perimeter defenders in the league this year, and that’s a challenge I made to myself. I told James and Russ whenever I’m on the floor, they’re not going to be guarding the best player, because they already have too much of a load.
Despite having significantly stronger offers from other teams, Rivers opted to re-sign with the Rockets in July for the league minimum. Given that bargain rate, simply carrying over his 2018-19 performance levels and defensive value would be more than adequate for the Rockets and GM Daryl Morey.
But to this point, Rivers has actually expanded his game relative to a year ago, with his offseason shooting emphasis paying off in a big way. The defense still needs to come around, but assuming it does, Rivers might end up being one of the NBA’s best values this season.
The New Orleans Pelicans will look to start their first winning streak of the season with a win over the Houston Rockets on Monday.
Who: New Orleans Pelicans vs. Houston Rockets
When: Monday, Nov. 11, 8:00 p.m ET
Where: Smoothie King Center
How to watch: Fox Sports New Orleans
After snapping their three-game losing streak on Saturday against the Charlotte Hornets, the New Orleans Pelicans (2-7) will look to get their first back-to-back wins of the regular season when they host the Houston Rockets (6-3) on Monday.
Neither team has started the season the way they wanted but the Rockets are still firmly in the playoff conversation with their All-Star backcourt featuring Russell Westbrook and James Harden — each of whom has won the league MVP award within the last three years. The same can’t be said of the Pelicans, however, who are No. 13 in the Western Conference going into Monday night’s game — a team they don’t match up well with.
The Rockets are ranked sixth in the league in fast-break points led by Russell Westbrook, who is fourth among players in fast-break points per game (5.8). The Pelicans are also ranked sixth in fast-break points but they also allow the most fast-break points in the NBA (20.4). That’s not a recipe for success against any team, but especially not the Rockets.
It’s not just transition defense that the Pelicans struggle with, though — it’s defense in general. Through nine games, the Pelicans are ranked No. 29 in the league in defensive rating, allowing 113.3 points per 100 possessions. At No. 22, the Rockets aren’t much better. But Houston has the second-most efficient offense in the NBA behind the Dallas Mavericks.
New Orleans will have to be at its best defensively on Monday. But with Lonzo Ball — one of their best defensive guards — sidelined once again, their best might not be enough. Hopefully the new-look starting lineup continues to surprise people and helps the Pelicans start their first winning streak of the season.
