General takeaway: we finally got punished for poor execution, poor starts and a plethora of mistakes.

Other observations:

– PG played defense but was a straight F on offense
– Worse, we made a conscious effort to get PG going. Generally correct approach but in this particular game, it was a part of PG getting 9 shots in the first half to Kawhi’s 3. A big WTF?!
– Third part of PG being awful was the effect it had on the overall offense: Pelicans were in part successful in their defensive approach to Kawhi because of PG’s struggles. Now, it still ain’t to single out PG. What’s not on him:
– Harden’s and Kawhi’s early turnovers, one of each were costly live-ball turnovers.
– Kawhi not being in killer-mode. I recall a single possession where he successfully sought out a mismatch and dominated.
– Harden did great as a scorer but let’s hold him to the point guard standard as well: did he make anyone better in the first half? Get Zu involved, get easier shots for players? No. Outside of a couple of possessions, our entire offensive execution was James Harden for 3 (historically the worst way to fill out his role). While Harden was one of the passable players overall, I was not exactly surprised to see that his 3-point second half with much better point guard play had a higher OFF RTG (the offensive rating for the TEAM in his minutes) than the 16-point/4 turnover first half.
– T-Mann: very limited offensive value. Only a single 3 taken, little chance of making impactful plays at 12.5% usage. The other negative of Harden’s approach to this game with close to no ball movement especially early on. His skills weren’t used and the few times they were, he didn’t come through with much (2 turnovers on low usage).
– Russ: poor execution in the last 40 seconds of the 1st. Poor finishing. Not so down on his turnovers (the first was on a questionable call, the 3rd was an attempt to save Plumlee’s bad pass in a situation where Plums could have just secured the rebound). Set up two wide open corner 3s that were both missed in addition to the 4 assists and was alright on defense. Like Mann though, misused which leads me to the coach:
– Ty Lue: down on him in this one for a lot of reasons. 1st quarter: bad start, lots of turnovers, no ball movement – no adjustment from the coach. Rotation: another bad start and the first substitution he makes is Plumlee for Zu. Norm and Russ in way too late which led to: our high-talent lineups losing their minutes, playing bad offense and our strong 6th and 7th man playing in sub-optimal lineups against a strong Pelicans bench. It was a significant factor.

Mann not involved in the offense, didn’t figure out a way to get Kawhi or the centers more shots, didn’t stop the attempt to forcefully play through PG when it obviously wasn’t working.

3rd quarter: Russ and Norm first two off the bench (which is pretty much admitting his 1st quarter mistake), 3.5 minutes of small ball going -2 (with Pels having the ball on both the first and last possession of the stint and Clippers missing shots that they normally make at a solid clip) – Lue abandoned that approach way too early. It’s still defensible as Harden has to rest and you can go with some Plumlee minutes but if that’s the argument then how do you justify the extended Plumlee stint after a) Zion absolutely annihilated him on defense b) the bad pass after the offensive rebound that led to a dunk for the Pels c) Plumlee doubling off Trey Murphy for no reason, giving up a 3 to a great shooter d) Zu already resting for 6:30 minutes plus the intermission plus additional time in the 4th? Zu could have brought what Plumlee brought on offense but with way better defense (we were a measly 70 points better on defense with Zu, 70!!!). We missed out on the critical run there. Adding to that: even going small was a better approach because you don’t have rim protection anyway. Going small maximises Russ, helps Kawhi, helps Norm, helps the offense and you have a higher chance of turning the Pels over.

Kawhi back in for 4 minutes before throwing in the towel: he wasn’t nearly maximised either. As much as the players screwed up here, I was extremely disappointed with the lineup choices of Ty.
– Critical, big swings going NOLA’s way: a) the clear Clipper possession ruled for them b) Coffey missing the wide open corner 3 (happens), then not finding his man in transition, made 3 Pels c) Norm missing a wide open corner 3 (happens) but in a critical moment it hurt d) PG messing up the easy pass on the fast break e) PG missing tons of shots he makes in his sleep otherwise f) the early live-ball turnovers plus the lacking transition defense were big swings g) down only 4 points, Harden LEAVES CJ (who has the ball), gifting him a wide open 3 after momentum was about to shift; absolute momentum killer. Lots and lots and lots of costly mistakes that finally got punished.

–> We’re still good. But stop sloppy play, stop coasting, move the damn ball, close out hard and work on transition defense. If we correct half of this, I think we’re the #1 seed, at worst second. We need to get more serious though, even with all the talent that we have.

We fans twist in the wind over the bragging rights about who’s #1 in the standings etc but star players and experienced coaches don’t give that much of a shit. They are navigating the bigger picture.

No injuries is always win for this team.