ESPN reacts to Orlando Magic beat New Orleans Pelicans 117-108; Paolo Banchero dazzles with 32 Pts

ESPN reacts to Orlando Magic beat New Orleans Pelicans 117-108; Paolo Banchero dazzles with 32 Pts

Friday versus the San Antonio Spurs before the pels head back out on the road we’ve still got some Pelicans faithful with us tonight glad they are hanging with us here inside this movie we need all the help we can get yes we do a little good energy a little good

Mojo David once again the magic proved to be a tough matchup for the Pelicans we saw them best the Pelicans March 24th March 21st in Orlando now tonight here at the Smoothie King Center what makes them such a tough matchup I I personally think it’s their physicality the way

They seem to almost wrestle with the Pelicans on screens on on dhos um anytime they’re in the area their physicality on the Pelicans was was almost almost flagrant and they played through the whistle played until the officials called anything and when they didn’t call it they ended up with Steals

And turnovers to go the other way and the Pelicans just kind of got back on their heels and and never really answered or responded we did see them get frustrated unfortunately there at the end and that cost a couple of young bellans players uh some bows and some

Money yeah some money you don’t want to go out like that follow B Caro once again a shining star for this magic Squad thankfully not a triple double this time around but he did have quite the night scoring the basketball as he usually does van car finding way anytime

You get to the free throw line as a score that’s huge and the Pelicans because they were switch and CJ would be down there on Nai and they were just too small they’ foul him he’d go to the line and that was the difference unfortunate for the Pelicans as they Dro this one

They get another chance to get a w Friday night as they welcome in the San Antonio Spurs perhaps they can learn a few lessons glean something from this loss let’s take a look at your FanDuel final stats you know the coaching staff will be pouring all over these David

When you run down these anything in particular that jumps out to you well you know when I when I looked at the halftime assists I didn’t love how they were moving the basketball it didn’t get much better I think they had 11 in the first half 10 this team should be up

There 25 26 27 uh assists especially against a good defensive team you have to move the ball I didn’t think they moved it enough too much one-on-one and and and not enough ball movement to make this defense shift and have to even scramble some they never had to do it

All night Pelicans also end with 14 turnovers for the evening not awful but didn’t help themselves in particular either in that department bunch of contributions from that Orlando Squad including Mo bner the vogner brothers had their fingerprints all over this one David they shot him pretty decent tonight yes he did that

Orlando Magic bench big in the first win big in the second one versus the Pelicans Dyson Daniels big for the the Pelican second line we’ll be talking about him in just a moment but right now let’s take a look at your updated playoff fixture because we’ve talked

About how every game counts so much and how fluid this situation is especially in the Western Conference all right Pelican still sitting at six but David now a half a game back behind the Dallas Mavericks where they had been tied they’re trying desperately to avoid that play in tournament that seventh eth

Ninth 10th spot you getting nervous at all oh yeah so as I said on Monday and for you fans out there who are looking at this look at the loss column the 31 losses they’re now tied with three other teams with the losses so you can’t get

Those back those are on your record but the wins can go up so right now if if if these teams continue to if the Pelicans lose one more game they can slip all the way down tonight is their goal to avoid the playin tournament to end six and above

Hopefully they will start riding the ship versus the Spurs Friday night and then it’s out on a lengthy road trip against West Coast opponents a lot of the guys we’ve already seen recently the Suns the Kings the Golden State Warriors all who still have dogs in this hunt so

To speak yeah you know what and you would look at San Antonio Spurs as a good well game but you can’t look at them like a good well game uh Victor weyan has been playing outstanding and they’ve been playing a lot of teams close so if they don’t go in there with

The right mindset and the in the attack mode they can come out here with another loss against San Antonio they’re playing that well right now at end of the season dispers just gave the Nuggets all they wanted yes indeed and and web andana had almost a quadruple double he had nine

Blocks in that contest so listen if if if this team wants to get right they’re going to have to do it on their own they have to make their own breaks right now and it’s coming down to the wire you got to see that sense of urgency next game

Is this an issue of handling physicality I I I think so I I don’t think they’ve handle physicality all year really well I think when teams get up in them they almost take a step back instead of moving forward now I understand Brandon Ingram how important he is I understand

How important Jose Alvarado is to this team and yes they are playing short-handed but I still feel like this team is deep enough and good enough to beat some of the teams that have come in here this week hopefully a blip on the radar screen certainly they’ve got to

Learn to handle third quarter situations better we’ll talk about that at a moment as well but I’d like to get your take David on this Zion Williamson injury because o the crowd went crazy thinking it should be a flagrant one called and it was not the officials saw differently

It was some scary moments though Zion ended up going back to the locker room got checked out not just by athle athletic trainers but also by team doctors let’s roll that tape if we can to watch what happened in this I don’t think it was intentional I don’t see

Gary Harris as a player like that but it’s still still flagrant if you run out on a shooter and this is what the official said that he slipped okay fine if you run out on a shooter and slip under his feet and he comes down on you

That is still a flagrant I don’t understand how they could look at that and not call it a flagrant and that’s where the frustration for the Pelicans boiled over at the end of the game his guys taken up for Z saying this is enough enough is enough cuz we do see

It night in and night out he gets such big shots taken at him he doesn’t get enough he don’t get his foul calls he should you look at Ben Caro who who shot 13 free throws Zion what shot four that that’s that that can’t be as much as he

Plays inside he’s always in the paint living in the paint you could probably blow the whistle every time he goes to the paint so pick a handful and blow the whistle at least make it respectable let’s get coach Willie Green’s thoughts on this loss and on that Zion Williamson no call

Essentially yeah second thir well they’re a big team they got in the paint uh got to the free throw line you know they made some shots and um we battled we battled the guys um it came down to the last you know couple minutes of the game but we we once again it’s

You look at the third quarter and 21 points you know it it it goes back to putting together a full 48 minutes can you describe what happened at the end of the game I know frustration and over but the you know the other three guys thrown

Out of the ball yeah our our frustration like you said graph it boiled over and um we we have to keep our composure look I I get it um some calls aren’t going our way we feel like other teams are getting those calls and our guys are frustrated

About it rightfully so and I’m okay with battling and you know there’s some times where guys get a tech here and there but at the end of the game we we we have to keep our composure game’s over pretty much and we got to take it you know we

Lost we got to be able to take that sometimes the offense in third quarter what do you feel like you guys could have done better in that quarter yeah we got to create some stops uh first and foremost and then capitalize on our opportunities to to

Get out and play in the open floor but they did a great job of packing the paint on Zion um making us take tough shots and then they hit a few big threes to start that quarter and they got them on a run yeah why why do you think the

The three-point attempts were kind of low again tonight they they’re one of the best defenses in the league and that’s what they do they they do a great job of taking away your pain opportunities and they they close out extremely hard to to your shooter so

They make you put the ball on the floor and uh that’s what they did tonight uh I don’t think Z played in the final seven minutes um is he okay physically just what do you see there uh he had something going on with his finger I’m

Not quite sure what it is at the moment but um we’ll have an update for you for you guys soon and was that the reason you left the game initially was that to to Gary Harris into his legs uh he left the game originally because something

Was going on with his finger out I’m not sure what exactly what the diagnosis is at the moment but um I’m hoping he’s okay and you know like I said we’ll we’ll have an update for you guys shortly I just what you thought just on

The state of the team right now you know losing four the last five during this this home stand we talked about and kind of just the way the game ended with frustrations being this is exactly that it’s it’s frustrating but you know it it this is a

Part of it uh it’s not going to be easy to go where we want to go and this is a part of the NBA journey is that we put ourselves in a unbelievably good position uh but we have to run through the tape and I think we got six

Games left we got to put it together and that’s the deal for us but it’s definitely frustrating losing some of these games I know we want to be better and we will but right now now we got to regroup uh keep our heads up and and

Continue to go after the season got six games left so that’s the deal for Us Foree look for spe spee For h spe I for e me

ESPN reacts to Orlando Magic beat New Orleans Pelicans 117-108; Paolo Banchero dazzles with 32 Pts