Pelicans spoil LeBron James’ and Lakers NYE behind big nights from Zion Williamson and Jose Alvarado

Pelicans spoil LeBron James’ and Lakers NYE behind big nights from Zion Williamson and Jose Alvarado

The Pelicans brought it to end the season against the Los Angeles Lakers and with that win it told you a lot about the Pelicans in a positive way I’ll explain how and why in today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans let’s Go you are locked on Pelicans your daily New Orleans Pelicans podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday welcome to another edition of locked on Pelicans the daily podcast covering your favorite team the New Orleans Falcons and NBA part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day available

Wherever you get your podcast and available on YouTube I’m your host Pelicans Insider credential member of the media Jake Madison Nola Jake on Twitter here with you’all on this New Year’s Day Happy New Year to you and yours hope you had a fun evening sorry

For coming to you a little bit late here was out after the Pelicans game last night celebrating a fun victory for the Pelicans 2 over the Los Angeles Lakers kind of dominating fashion 129 109 we’ll break down the big performances in this game because it actually told you a lot

About the team spacing role players stepping up and then I want to look at the last 10 games for the Pelicans because they are playing really good basketball today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more right now new customers get $150 in bonus Bets with

Any winning $5 money line bet that’s $1 15 bucks if your team wins visit fanduel.com lockon to get started and of course thank you for making locked on Pelicans your first listen every day we are free and available wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube part of the

Lockedown podcast Network your team every day be coming every day or listen Monday through Friday to locked on Pelicans we’ll be back usual time I’m going to record basically tomorrow show Almost right after this one so it’ll be available for you tonight on YouTube always the next day right away on the

Podcast side of things so now that the holidays are over we’re back to regular L scheduled timing on everything so I appreciate everyone bearing with me over the past week as it’s been at times sporadic but we’ve had shows when we need to have shows so let’s get into

This one you love to see what the Pelicans did against the Los Angeles Lakers 129 109 look they got La in an in an advantageous position the Lakers playing on the second night of a backto back little bit tired on New Year’s Eve wanting to probably just get the heck

Out of New Orleans and just go do their thing led to the Pelicans more or less running them out of the building but the tone was set early on in this one and it was with three-point shooting the Pelicans took 10 threes in the first quarter of this game making seven of

Them you know three-point shooting along with injuries is kind of the great equalizer in the NBA right now it’s why you’re seeing like a 10-point lead is not safe heck a 20-point lead double digit leads as we know with the Pelicans not a safe thing anymore not like it

Used to be with the amount of shooting and the way things are geared towards the offense in the NBA right now so when the Pelicans can come out and hit their shots like that and it was really CJ McCullum carrying the Pelicans in the first quarter here 15 points from him

Making five threes in one quarter alone five of seven along with four assists set the tone early and it just opened everything else up you know on the night the Pelicans shot very well from three 17 of 34 they were 50% from Deep you had

CJ go 6 for 11 herb Jones three of five what I love this one Brandon Ingram four of seven and it allowed them to just do everything they wanted to do in this game how much easier did the offense look so so much easier right there was

Space and one of the things that allowed was Zion Williamson to have a very very incredibly efficient game 26 points on eight of 12 shooting 26 points on 12 shot attempts alongside four rebounds six assists you had a couple more turnovers than you would like with four

But when your offense is rolling like that you can live with some of these things you know the eight of 12 shooting finishing at The Rim like we expect him to do being able to get to the line he was 10 of 12 at the free throw line

After you know having a rough shooting night from the stripe the other day you know letting him just kind of be him and part of it was he had space right the Pelicans were making threes they were punishing teams from throwing double teams at him and what it forced the team

To what it forced the Lakers to do was defend him one-on-one with Anthony Davis and this is where we talked about the fouling and going to the free throw line being a huge Advantage for the Pelicans when you’re defending him one-on-one that’s tough you throw three four bodies

At Zion Williamson little bit easier to throw him off his game you also don’t see fouls called when there’s so many bodies right there and he’s just barreling into them cuz the refs are like yeah no you weren’t going to score like tough luck it was good defense

There was just too much for you to do when it’s oneon-one it’s different and with Anthony Davis playing him one-on-one for the most part in this game defending him like that adj struggled he put Anthony Davis in foul trouble at times picking up two quick ones on him right and it allowed the

Lakers then to be on the back or Force the Lakers to then be on the back foot Zion to have even more ability to operate you know that comes from Brandon Ingram taking the threes he was 10 of 18 in this game 26 points eight assists five rebounds three steals two blocks

I’ll talk more about his defense in tomorrow’s show because he’s been really working hard on that end and he deserves his credit for it so I want to break that down look at it in tomorrow’s episode along with the TV news and all of that some games going to be broadcast

On Fox locally in New Orleans so I’ll break that all down for you um in tomorrow’s episode of Locked on Pelicans but when Brandon is shooting four of seven from three and spacing the court like that like everything just clicks in this game and they looked so much better

Overall the team had an offensive rating of 120 what’s what’s where’s the number 129 oh 12 9.0 their average offensive rating this season how much better is it than that let me find where that number is is 116 they basically play with 100 possessions per game their pace is

Basically right at 100 so this game they scored above their average by 13 points it’s really good that’s really good and shows you how well the offense is starting to click right now and when the spacing is going well for him it just opens everything up and when you get

These that’s why you get a strong performance from C McCullum feed him early have him start making an impact and when they started closing out on CJ even harder in the second half he was passing the ball moving the ball he was drawing a Defender away and putting the

Lakers in rotation so guys are moving over and all the Pelicans are then doing is just trying to find the open man when herb Jones makes you pay three of five from Deep right you’re going to really say oh we need to guard him we’re going

To need to put a body on him or at least like half acid compared to just doing nothing right and they did and it opens things up and then Brandon when his shot is falling from three and they close out on him harder he can just blow by his

Guy and attack the basket you saw a couple of really good drives to the rim something he’s been doing a lot more of this season when that three-point shot Falls that’s even more open for him and then you see him just dishing to a guy under the basket whether it was a

Cutting Dyson Daniels who then found yonas Val chunis below the basket or Larry n Jr below the basket we’ll talk about Larry we’ll talk about Jose Alvarado who’s awesome in this game coming up in the next segment too everything just falls into place right you know you even saw like tweaks to the

Rotation in this one fewer minutes for Dyson Daniels than normal a couple more minutes for Jordan Hawkins even getting some run in the first half for a stint just to put another shooter out there and that spacing really does matter that’s exactly what you want to see

Growth from this team this is a bit of a statement going into 2024 which welcome to that everybody and I love what we saw from the Pelicans in this game strong performances from their big three how it should be right 22 for CJ mccum 26 each for Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson

That’s going to carry the team and all of those guys working well in unison having chemistry trusting one another really The Big Three carrying it starting with CJ bombing away from three early connecting on those just broke this game wide open and at that point you felt like they were going to run

Away with it and the Lakers weren’t going to have a chance so coming up next though the role players were great let’s look at Jose Alvarado let’s look at Larry Nance Jr let’s look at nji Marshall those guys who really stepped up in this game and elevated the team

That’s going to be coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans right now though I’m excited to tell you about FanDuel the NBA season is in full swing the NFL season is wrapping up but there’s still time to get in on the action with FanDuel America’s number

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Pelicans your first listen today and every day we are here Monday through Friday we’ll be back to the usual schedule of everything starting tomorrow for you I will’ll look at Brandon Ingram and his defense I want to look at the TV stuff talk about the TV deal a little a

Little bit more and how it’s going to change this year and what it’ll mean for the Pelicans going forward easier for you to watch games harder we’ll find out we’ll talk about that in tomorrow show so if you’re in every day you know what’s coming if you’re in every day you

Know this team has been playing relatively well and they’ve needed to make some tweaks we’ll talk a little bit more about that in the third segment of today’s show support the channel by commenting down below and sharing the podcast with a friend this team’s good you’ll see it they’re seven to three in

The last 10 games and the numbers are going to make you kind of think because they’ve been good but let’s talk a little bit more about this game the Pelicans taking on the Los Angeles Lakers a 129 101 109 win 20-point victory for the pels easy work on New

Year’s Eve and it was even easier when your role players step up like they did in this game let’s start with Jose Alvarado 20 minutes of action for him eight points but that’s not really what we’re looking at when it comes to Jose the points are good he made two threes

That’s important too he’s got to space the court but really it’s just that deep defensive impact and the hustle he brings that just elevates everybody around him it’s the four steals right it was when the Lakers ran Jackson Hayes a center we all know who he is from the

Pelicans against Jose Alvarado who’s not above six feet against a seven-footer and Jose plays Stout defense strips the ball from Jackson Hayes gets it as a steel forces the turnover the Pelicans go the other way Jackson Hayes was stunned when that happened it was LeBron James driving at the basket Jose

Stepping in front and stealing the ball from him knocking it Loose pelicans get the ball they go the other way it was him doing the GTA steel the Grand Theft Alvarado the sneaky steel where he’s chilling Baseline hiding and getting LeBron James from behind which what a

Moment for an undrafted player to do that move on the the biggest start in the league in LeBron James the top two- player all time that’s very cool for Jose Alvarado his career ended tomorrow which is not we hope it doesn’t what a really cool thing to be able to say that

You did as we all know I love Jose here so this is really I don’t know that was just a fun game you know I have doubted his long-term viability in the league with the team you know more so than the you know in any sort of greater role

Than what he does right now but if you’re going to make those threes and you’re going to play that kind of Defense even if it doesn’t always work out even if you give up some in the half court too because he’s undersized you still have a place on this team and it’s

Needed and even after the game Zion Williamson was talking about Jose Alvarado and how that kind of those type of plays that energy it brings to the team is needed you know game has an EB and flow to it so for him to go out get

A steal like that and kind of force everyone to kind of elevate their game bring some energy to the team maybe in a moment when it’s lagging a little bit has been important we’ve seen Naji Marshall play a similar role the energy guy off the bench that even if Na’s not

The most skilled player in the NBA a little out of control at times times the fact that he’s going out and basically busting his ass you know gets these other guys to do the same thing Naji Marshall was good in this game too he was three of eight that’s not the best

But again five rebounds three Steals and won his minutes when he was out there on the court you know that’s what you need from those bench guys try not to give up the lead and as much as I’ve been uncertain about some of these guys they are continually continuingly continuing there we go

That’s the word I’m thinking of proving me wrong with their play on the court and helping the Pelicans win their games that’s the most important thing at the end of the day right the Pelicans still have a good record here even if there have been moments when it Fel feels like

The sky is falling but they’re 19 and 14 they almost made it to 20 wins by the start of 2024 only 1 two 3 four five only six teams have 20 or more wins at this point the Pelicans came real close to being able to be the seventh team

Doing that that’s what something I’ll talk a little bit more about in the third segment why we get frustrated with this team despite the fact that they’re 19 and 14 have the same record as the Dallas Mavericks right have a better record than the Phoenix Suns have a

Better record than the Los Angeles Lakers uh golden state is 15 and 17 more on that to come and I’ll tell you the numbers behind that and why you should be excited about this Pelicans team going into this season but Jose Alvarado winning his minutes Nai Marshall doing

It Nai with that kind of like crazy basket over LeBron James that kind tipped and fell in and just is you know chaotic good at times out there on the court and just brings a level of energy that this team at times with the starters lacks slightly concerning but

If you’ve gotten that on the roster use it and Willie Green is and in general finding the right role players in this game I thought was important you know one of them being Larry Nance Jr who I do think struggled earlier on in the year you know towards the end of last

Year I thought struggled too has not been healthy and now it seems like with backtack really strong games Larry Nance Jr just might simply be back and being what we expect from him and maybe it just simply was health and you’ve got to give him credit if that’s the case for

Going out and trying to play through these injuries but it shows you the need to just rest let your body recover come back and then really help the team when you look at the individual plus minus in this game you had Brandon Ingram plus 17

The next guy was Larry Nance Jr plus 17 as well Off the Bench three of four making a three 10 rebounds right three assists in this one 11 points going to the line getting all making all of his free throws he has looked good the off ball movement that he brings the cutting

That he brings to the team is different than what Jonas V chunis is capable of giving them and again Jonas has been very very solid I’ve Loved how he’s played this season but Larry Nance Jr being that smaller more athletic more movement big man is exactly what this

Team was looking for and needing I think if you’re not going to run the offense through Jonas funas if you’re doing that he’s great but if you’re kind of relegating him to the fourth or fifth option on the team it doesn’t work nearly as well so him being able to go

Out and play like this really adds another dimension to this team and maybe it really was as simple as he needs to get healthy well he’s healthy now and he’s making a big impact he does really well in the dunker spot you know immediately to the left or right of the

Basket just kind of basically on the edge of the paint slightly inside the paint that area that it’s called the dunker spot because the guys in there when you get them the ball they just go up and they and they dunk it so when Zion is able to drive and get some space

And attack the basket and you have an outlet for him right down below the basket in Larry an Jr that’s great or Larry can cut from the corner get the ball on the move and then put it up or curl around behind Zion to be behind and

Either ready for the tip in or to for hision just kind of turn around and hand him the ball and he can go up with it but all of the cuts all of the off ball movement that you’ve seen from him this game the previous game as well that has

Worked really well and really led to this team getting some of these victories right like you had Trey making those two threes against the Utah Jazz which were the daggers but you also had a dunk from Larry Nance Jr in there from Zion Williamson and that I think was

Just as important to shutting the door on that game and closing it out for New Orleans and ending you know the Jazz’s winning streak and in this one to be able to do it again against your former team which is always great I think really shows you that he looks back and

If he can play at this level that’s an incredibly important piece for this team it’s been two games I want to see it a little bit longer than that but it seems like he looks healthy he’s in the right place uh mentally and I’m excited to see

What Larry n Jr is going to be able to bring to this team going forward now that he looks fully healthy because it definitely unlocks a little bit of what they want to be able to do so he’s looked great Jose Alvarado was incredible in this game Nai Marshall

Solid fewer minutes for Dyson Daniels again the rotation was a a little bit better giving some to Jordan Hawkins even if he doesn’t make a shot again two rebounds and assists for him in you know under eight minutes of action it’s pretty good you’re starting to see the

Right kind of tweaks to the roster to the rotation sorry from Willie Green and that’s the type of growth that we have wanted to see so coming up next the pelons are seven and three in their last 10 games since the loss to the Los Angeles Lakers the numbers are really

Good I’m going to share with you what those are and why it’s a good thing the Pelicans aren’t reaching their full potential just yet that’s coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans right now though I’m excited to tell you about prize pick because prize

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Use promo code locked on NBA prize piix it’s daily fantasy sports Made Easy and thank you for making locked on Pelicans your first listen today and every day we are here Monday through Friday the number one Pelicans podcast breaking down everything you want to know looking at the game the win over

The Los Angeles Lakers really good victory for the Pelicans to end the SE uh to end the calendar year on 2024 I was going to say season the season is far from over Pelicans currently sitting seventh in the Western Conference tied with Dallas for six really in a good

Position to actually get into the top four the Clippers have 19 wins as well and the Pelicans could easily get right into that mix as well and kind of pop back up there and be in the hunt for home court advantage cuz they’re starting to figure some things out so

Sure you subscribe to lockon Pelicans we’re part of the lockon podcast Network your team every day so you know what’s going on with the team for your second listen lockon has launched the first ever National Sports 247 streaming Channel on YouTube locked on sports today is here for you 24/7 covering the

Top sports stories of the day with the local Experts of locked on plus our national shows covering every league go to lockon sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever National Sports 247 streaming channel so as I said this team is figuring some things out they’re not perfect yet they have

Things they need to work on I’m here to tell you this is all good this is all good we see the room for improvement right we see the potential in this team for this team we want them to reach it that’s why some of these losses have been

Frustrating the blown double digit leads that are leading to losses when this team easily could be like right in the mix for the top spot in the Western Conference at the moment or top two seed we want them to be reaching that the goal is for them to be reaching that

Though at the end of the season not right now and I think they’re in position to be able to do some of that when you look at over their last 10 games since the loss to Los Angeles Lakers the blowout loss in Las Vegas in the inseason tournament this team is

Seven in three they’re tied for the sixth best record during that stretch Boston and Milwaukee are 9- one the Nuggets Clippers Thunder are 8-2 and then the heat Timberwolves Pelicans 76ers and Jazz are 7 and3 so they’re in real good mix right there real good company with a lot of

These teams for how they are playing with when you look at them the offense by the way fifth best in the league during that time uh they’re they have an offensive rating and this is points scored per 100 possessions and the Pelicans have a pace of 99.71% doesn’t always equate to points

Per game I want to make that clear but right now when the pace is 100 it makes it super easy so 121.1mi at 12 is third best in the league they’re essentially outscoring over these past 10 games their opponent by 12 points they’re rounding into form and looking really good the offense is

Starting to click you’re finding the kind of right rotations some of the other things that are worth bringing up when we look at them by the Numbers here is their defensive rebounding percentage is strong this is grabbing the number of available defens of rebounds right it

Could go a defensive board it could be an offensive board they are rebounding those at basically 75% 74.6 is their defensive rebounding rate it’s third best in the league during this time so when we stress about the rebounds and all of that yes it’s hurt them in one or

Two games but overall this season it really hasn’t actually been that big of a problem where you go that is a weakness of the team you’re going to have games where it doesn’t work right you’re going to have bad games that loss to the Lakers was bad Zion took the

Brunt of all of that but as I said you know those games happen and I hadn’t been overly concerned about Zion or even the rest of the team just yet to the point where we’re panicking are they a title Contender not until they figure some things out but over these past 10

Games to go seven and three to have your offense be in the top five to have the second best defense says they are figuring some of those things out and this is why earlier on in the year if you’re an every day or I said honestly the fact that they have things to

Improve are good if we were looking at this team and being like I don’t know what else they’re supposed to be doing right like look at the the Detroit Pistons I’ve been like riveted watching the losing Street watching a lot of their basketball games just to see if it

Would happen or not finally did good for them but you look at that team and you’re like what would you do differently and I don’t really have an answer to that here we look at the Pelicans go oh do this do this do this and that’ll make a world of

Difference having that room to grow not reaching your ceiling I think is a good thing at this point in time for a team because when they do figure those things out and clearly they’re starting to over the past 10 games here you become a very good team and all of a sudden then

That’s when you round into form now you’ve got to do it against a difficult schedule coming up we’ll look at that maybe a little bit in tomorrow’s show as well but when you look at them you know the offense is clicking right now they’re rebounding at a high rate

They’re shooting the ball well they’re turning the ball over a little bit more than you’d like they’re in the bottom third in the league in terms of offensive turnovers but I think that gets better as the spacing gets better so the offense will be able to kind of

Recover from all of that you’d like them to maybe pass the ball a little bit more and move it around a little bit more and not on as much ISO basketball as they do but we’ve seen with Larry Nance Jr back you know the ball is moving a little bit

More when he’s in those lineups with the off ball cutting and everything that he brings you so this team is really starting to round into the right kind of form this is exactly what you’ve wanted to see from this Pelicans team some of the losses are very frustrating don’t

Get me wrong two of them kind of in heartbreaking fashion to the Memphis Grizzlies shouldn’t have lost to the Houston Rockets either but overall they’re taking care of business right going seven and three in your last 10 is exactly what you want winning games at a 70% rate is incredible you do that

You’re going to be the top seed in whatever conference you’re in so they’re playing very good basketball right now and it’s worth acknowledging that again shooting’s better spacing been a little bit better I think you know it adds dimension of spacing when you have Larry n Jr out there they’re running some more

Of the right kind of combinations in lineups they did they won this game without Trey Murphy in right like that’s pretty big I think too so as that starts to get worked through worked out a little bit more and expect this team to kind of keep taking off and being better

We’ll just see if they’re able to do it against a tough January schedule which good news you’ll be able to watch maybe a little bit easier for some of these upcoming games through a deal kind of unique with Fox 8 I’m looking forward to talking about that and what it’ll mean

For the future of the TV deal that’s going to be in tomorrow’s show let’s talk about Brandon Ingram his defense as well in tomorrow’s show and the tough January schedule coming up so that’s going to be the Tuesday episode of Game Day episode of lockon pelicans for you

Again Happy New Year we are the lockon Pelicans podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day as always I’m your host Jake Madison at NOA Jake on Twitter and I’ll be back with you all tomorrow

The New Orleans Pelicans ended 2023 on a strong note as Jose Alvarado and Zion Williamson shined in the win over LeBron James and the Los Angele Lakers. Jake Madison breaks down the win and how Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum were also key. Plus, beyond Jose, Larry Nance Jr played incredibly well and the Pels are now 7-3 in their last 10 games.

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