This is the one knee jerk that sorta scares me because it feels true. We are going to need chriss and hartenstein against teams like new orleans. Swiss bank, tucker ,ennis , cp3 not is enough on defense.
Was gonna say the exact same thing. Reminds me exactly of the 2015 opener against the Nuggets. Just a baffling, bad performance. Looks like the spirit is off within the whole team. Also, the new players are no excuse to have a defensive drop off. Maybe slightly but you can have a top 10 defense based on scheme alone. We too many good individual defenders (Capela, Tucker, Paul) in the starting lineup to get burned that badly to start the game. Which means the coaching staff looks lost on that end after losing Biglydick.
I really hope this isn't 2015-16 all over again(with a little bit of Spring 2014 mixed in). Virtually the same team(Josh Smith was gone in 2015, Ariza and Luc are gone in 2018) and a key addition we thought would put us over the top(Lawson in 2015, Melo in 2018), only to see a lethargic, shockingly bad opening night blowout loss at home. Now I will say the Pelicans are infinitely better than the shorthanded tanking Nuggets of 2015, but giving up 131 points at home is still inexplicable. The Spring 2014 similarity is the sudden departure of the team's top assistant coach. In 2014, we lost Kelvin Sampson and the players suddenly looked lost at times. This season, it was Bzdelik right before training camp and again the guys look lost out there defensively. I really hope Bzdelik wasn't THIS important to the team's success last season(and to a lesser extent, the year before) and that the players aren't mentally and emotionally wiped out after the Game 7 loss. If there's one glimmer of hope I cling to, it's that the Warriors after acquiring Durant got absolutely annihilated on their home floor by the Spurs in their season opener. They quickly rebounded from that embarrassment to go 67-15 and nearly sweep their way through the postseason.
I didn't like MDA making excuses in the post game last night . Last year he would've said "we didn't bring the force " which is true . Clint played small , Paul and Harden took a while to get going , Gordon couldn't buy a 3 and neither could Melo . Let's hope that's as bad as we look this year , because I Dunno if I can take much worse .
This is want i don't get, there was a lot of talk in the past weeks about how hungry and not happy they are about how last season ended, and then they come out like they did last night...
Maybe only playing Memphis and Shanghai during the preseason doesn't help us gauge how the team will look against an actual playoff squad.
You're probably right, after all we lost at home against the Pacers and they literally destroied Memphis yesterday.
You can't shut down the Pels. One just hopes to keep it close in the 4th quarter to have a chance to pull off a victory. We will get'em next year.
