Key Takeaways From Pelicans-Suns NBA Playoffs Game 5
While they won two straight games in the Play-In Tournament to claim the 8-seed in the Western Conference, nobody was giving the New Orleans Pelicans a shot to beat the Phoenix Suns in the first-round of the playoffs.
Heading into Tuesday night’s Game 5, the Pelicans and Suns were all even at 2-2, making this game a pivotal matchup in this series.
The Suns came away with a 112-97 victory and even without Devin Booker, their offense was clicking at home.
Phoenix shot 43-86 (50.0%) from the floor in their Game 5 victory and others outside of Chris Paul stepped up in the absence of Booker.
Deandre Ayton, Cameron Johnson and most importantly, Mikal Bridges stepped up to elevate the Phoenix Suns to a 3-2 series lead heading back to New Orleans for Game 6 on Thursday.
Between the Pelicans’ mistakes and the Suns seizing their opportunities, here are the biggest takeaways from Tuesday night’s game.
Mikal Bridges Is The Key With Devin Booker Out
Stepping up and having one of the best performances of his young career, Mikal Bridges ended Game 5 on Tuesday night with 31 points, 24 of which were scored in the second-half, on 12-17 shooting, 4-4 from three-point range.
Not only was this a playoff career-high in points for Bridges, but it was a playoff career-high made threes and he also had a career-high 4 blocks in the game.
The Suns took care of business in Game 3 without Devin Booker thanks to Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton combining for 56 points, but then they lost by 15 points in Game 4 due to Paul struggling to find his groove offensively.
Without Devin Booker, there were major question marks leading up to Game 5 about who would have to and who would step up for the Suns offensively and Mikal Bridges made it very clear that he is the key to the Suns finding success with and without their All-Star guard.
Performances like this one are not going to happen every single night for Bridges, but his confidence and aggressiveness is what Phoenix was lacking in this series.
Now, finding his groove again on the offensive-end of the floor, the Suns have all the momentum in this series heading into Game 6 and they once again look like the top-tier title contenders they looked like when they finished the regular season with 64 wins.
Phoenix Held Their Own On The Glass
One of the biggest discrepancies in this first-round series between the Pelicans and Suns has been in the rebounding category. For the first-time in this series, the Suns did not get dominated by the Pelicans on the glass.
New Orleans had been outrebounding Phoenix 191-142 heading into Game 5 and while the Pelicans outrebounded the Suns 47-40 on Tuesday night, the Suns held their own pretty well on the interior.
Jonas Valanciunas grabbed 14 rebounds, but the Suns were even with the Pelicans in terms of defensive rebounds at 34 in this game and they limited New Orleans’ second-chance scoring opportunities when they came down with offensive rebounds.
Given the Pelicans’ size and physicality in the paint, there was virtually no way that Phoenix was going to outrebound them in this series, but Monty Williams made some key adjustments in Game 5 to alleviate a lot of stress on the glass for his squad.
Playing Deandre Ayton and JaVale McGee at the same time really helped the Suns pull close to even with the Pelicans in terms of rebounding in this game and there was a certainly level of physicality present in Game 5.
During the first four games of this series, the Suns did not box out the Pelicans well after a shot had gone up and as a result, New Orleans was grabbing offensive rebounds left and right.
They still ended up with 13 offensive boards in Game 5, however, Phoenix did a much better job of boxing out and as a result, they equaled the Pelicans’ total for defensive rebounds in this game.
Turnovers Will Cost New Orleans This Series
CJ McCollum did not have a great showing offensively, shooting just 7-22 from the floor, and Brandon Ingram was held in check for the most part with 22 points, but the main problem with New Orleans on Tuesday night was their sloppy play offensively.
Losing a game due to not hitting open shots is one thing, but losing a game due to careless turnovers can be avoided.
In Game 5, the Pelicans turned the ball over 15 times, resulting in 23 total points for the Phoenix Suns. A lot of things factor into a win/loss in the NBA, yet this stat really sticks out and is one of the main reasons why New Orleans ended up losing on Tuesday night,
Against a terrific defensive team in the Phoenix Suns, the Pelicans cannot afford to give them free opportunities to run out in transition, especially with them not having Devin Booker to lean on offensively.
The Pelicans have been good defensively in this series against the Suns, which is why turnovers could ultimately prove to be their downfall in Game 6.
Maybe they still would have lost Game 5 with a couple of less turnovers, but valuing each possession offensively and making the most out of what they have with Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum is a “must” moving forward.
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