ESPN TV analyst Jon Barry seemed to channel the thoughts of every New Orleans Pelicans player, coach and fan Friday night, when the broadcaster reacted to a highlight-reel Anthony Davis swat and steal against San Antonio’s LaMarcus Aldridge.
“1-11 is enough!” Barry exclaimed on air, referring to the Pelicans’ record to open the 2015-16 regular season. “Let’s go!”
Mere feet away, Davis – who’d just rejected an Aldridge high-release fadeaway, then saved the ball off Aldridge’s body as Davis fell out of bounds – exhorted the Smoothie King Center crowd, howling to fans after the memorable sequence. The two-time All-Star’s quick-thinking hustle play was perhaps the biggest New Orleans highlight from a 104-90 victory over the Spurs on national TV. After opening the season in frustrating fashion with separate six- and five-game losing skids, New Orleans (2-11) will now try to build on its top performance of the young season. The Pelicans host the Phoenix Suns on Sunday (5 p.m. Central, Fox Sports New Orleans).
“It was our best game by far,” Pelicans Coach Alvin Gentry said of beating the Spurs. “And it’s the first kind of complete game we’ve played this season, where we were aggressive from the start, made good decisions and played at a pace we like to play at. … I told the guys that it’s something we’ve got to build on. We don’t need to take a step back. We’ve got to take a step forward.”
With free-agent revelation Ish Smith leading the attack by dishing a career-high 13 assists, the Pelicans handed out 26 dimes as a team. At the other end, they played their best defensive game to date, just the second time New Orleans has held its opponent under 100 points this season. Ryan Anderson continued his high-scoring week, dropping in exactly 30 points for the second time in as many games. The sharpshooting power forward is averaging 28.0 points over the last three games, including connecting on 11 of 25 three-point attempts during that span.
“Our ball movement has been great,” Anderson said of the stretch, crediting Smith and NOLA’s backcourt players with setting him up for shots. “If you look down the line, guys got a lot of shot attempts, a lot of open looks. Probably more so in the past two games than we have all season. That’s because of our guards’ aggression and our ability to penetrate the defense.”
Davis (20 points, 18 rebounds) didn’t shoot well from the field (9/23), but notched his season high in boards and made several key plays, including the swat-and-save vs. Aldridge. Davis’ defense helped New Orleans limit San Antonio to just 16 fourth-quarter points, breaking open what had been a slim 78-74 lead through three quarters.
“I thought it was a total team effort. I thought everyone at some stage did something to help us win,” said Gentry, who was asked how gratifying it was for his team to beat San Antonio. “It is personally satisfying, but more so for the (players). Because they’ve competed and played hard, but hadn’t had a whole lot to show for it (in wins).”
“It’s fun to build off of something positive and good, because obviously a lot of people want to dwell on the negative,” Anderson said, alluding to the 1-11 start. “We need to build off a win like this. We have good momentum right now. We need to just keep going with it.”
Several Pelicans players said even though Wednesday’s game at Oklahoma City resulted in a 110-103 defeat, it may have signaled the beginning of a turnaround. New Orleans only had nine players in uniform, yet fought tooth-and-nail against the Thunder and had a chance to win late, despite Russell Westbrook’s monster 43-point, nine-rebound, eight-assist performance.
“I thought in OKC we started turning the corner,” said Smith, who had 18 points and six assists Wednesday. “Tonight we built off of OKC and hopefully we can keep building.”
Due to a scheduling oddity, New Orleans’ next two games are both against Phoenix, at home Sunday and then in Arizona to open a three-game road trip Wednesday. The Pelicans get no breaks on the docket anytime soon – none of their next 10 opponents currently sports a losing record. The next foe who does, Portland on Dec. 14, already beat New Orleans back on Oct. 28.
“We just can’t take a step back,” Davis said of following up the San Antonio victory. “We can’t go into Sunday against Phoenix and come out slow. We’ve got to build off this win and kind of get us going, especially going into this road trip.”
