Clippers Find It A Bit Hard In The Big Easy

The Los Angeles Clippers (43-20) took a well deserved loss last night on the road against the New Orleans Pelicans (27-34) 120-103 at Smoothie King Center. The Clippers began the game pretty good, getting out to a 9-2 start. After that it was all NOLA. The Pelicans made 10 consecutive shots and wrenched the momentum away. They then maintained it well all the way to the final buzzer. Most of the game the Clippers looked like they did in the game previous against the Rockets. It did not come back to bite them then, but it did last night.

Some of their worst efforts this year have come against the Pelicans, as if they think that they do not deserve their best effort. New Orleans has become a bit of a buggaboo team for them. The Clippers needed to take this loss to wake them up as a team to the fact that they need to come out with energy and focus against even the bottom tier teams. New Orleans is not a playoff team right now, but showed last night they are still to be reckoned with.

STAR OF THE GAME

Zion Williamson and his game leading 23 points, a rebound, and 5 assists. Zion does all but all of his scoring in down low in the paint, but last night he actually managed to make a 3. It was a big one too, as the Clippers had just cut into the New Orleans lead with one of their own. Zion is a beast in the post, and he absolutely killed the Clippers down there last night, making 8 out of 11 shots. When he wants to score, there is very little you can do to stop him, and the Clippers saw that last night. Although at his size and strength you’d think he’d manage to come away with more than 1 rebound for the game.

BIGGEST CONCERN

The Clippers’ effort. The team just does not take every game seriously. Lately they have not been coming out with their best effort, and their performances have been lackluster and disappointing. They do not show the proper focus and attention all the time. They may have been looking ahead to their next game against the Suns, which will be a big one. The Suns are surging right now, and are the team right ahead of them in the standings. If they want to beat them and ultimately surpass them record-wise, they are going to need to consistently play much harder from start to finish than they did last night.

SURPRISE CONTRIBUTION

Lonzo Ball and his 18 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 steals. To begin this NBA career, there was a lot of question as to where Lonzo would ever live up to the hype surrounding him after playing in college at UCLA and blossom into a star. He had a wonky shot, and was prone to injury. After getting stronger and altering the form on his shot, he now looks like he is going to. There was rumors at the trade deadline that the Pelicans were looking to move him. I do not why know why they would want to though, because he is looking like a stud on a nightly basis.