The New Orleans Pelicans beat the Miami Heat 98-86 in Louisville on Saturday, although if you were not going out of your way to follow the score you would not of known. This is because the game was not televised anywhere, and the only way to follow the game was by listening to a radio broadcast of the game. What is this the 1940's? Moving on from that, there are lots of positives Pelican fans can take from the game, let us take a look:
Ryan Anderson and Jrue Holiday play their first games since early January: This one was what most Pelican fans wanted to see, HEALTH. After last season basically being ruined by injuries, all Pelicans fans want is the team to be healthy. Both looked fine physically. Holiday took a few poor shots, but that's not a worry in pre-season. Anderson scored 12 points in 14 minutes on 3/6 from threes, looking like his normal self, which is great news. Both played limited minutes with Coach Monty Williams wanting to ease them back.
Jimmer Fredette gets the green light and takes it: Jimmer Fredette was told by coaches that he had the green light this year, and that he should shoot every good look he gets. Well, Jimmer did that, and he co-led all scorers with James Ennis by putting up 17 points in the game. The backcourt combination of Jimmer Fredette and Austin Rivers combined for 29 points and 9 assists, shooting 11-18 and 4-6 from three-point distance. Expect both of these guys to contribute off the bench for NOLA this coming year with both in arguably the most important year of their careers.
Anthony Davis whilst playing limited minutes was looking as good as ever: Davis only played 11 minutes due to Coach Williams wanting to rest him after a long FIBA campaign with Team USA. In those 11 minutes, Anthony Davis got 3 blocks (two on Chris Bosh), 5 points, and 4 rebounds. That's a hell of a stat line for such little time. The Brow looked better than ever, and that's got to concern teams around the league.
The rest of the bench played well: Let us start with the bigs. Jeff Withey and Patric Young played roughly 20 minutes each collecting 15 rebounds between them (Young got 8, Withey got 7), although neither really did anything else, and Withey fouled out in 19 minutes, which is something he needs to work on still. Luke Babbitt shot 10 threes connecting on 5, scoring 15 points whilst also grabbing 6 rebounds. Russ Smith also returned back to Louisville, scoring 12 points in 13 minutes whilst getting 2 steals too. Russ was a fan favorite obviously and got a standing ovation on his return home.
There were lots of positives for Pelicans fans to take from the game, although beating the Heat should not be one of them because winning pre-season games means little to nothing. How you play in the pre-season games means a lot more, however. The next New Orleans pre-season game is Monday vs. Atlanta.