Pelicans Hope To Clean Up Mistakes From Opening Game
New Orleans, LA - The New Orleans Pelicans know they have a lot of room for improvement heading into their second Summer League game. They dropped their first game to the Minnesota Timberwolves 102-88 on Friday afternoon. New Orleans committed 31 turnovers and had 31 fouls in the loss.
Coach Casey Hill had a simple message for the team before it ended. "I told them with a minute left in the game, we beat ourselves. We didn't get beat. We beat ourselves tonight.......we can go back, watch the film, and get a lot better." New Orleans' next chance to prove that will be Sunday night against the Golden State Warriors.
There were some positives from Game 1 in Las Vegas. Second-year forward E.J. Liddell returned after suffering an ACL injury last Summer League, almost a year to the day. He finished the game with 9 points and three rebounds in 20 minutes. Liddell will be on a minutes restriction moving forward, but that's a positive sign of progress for him.
Credit: New Orleans Pelicans
Rookie Jordan Hawkins' debut saw him finish with 16 points, including three made 3-point shots. He wasn't shy about getting up three-point attempts. Hawkins led the team with ten attempts in 29 minutes on the court - one of the main reasons New Orleans drafted him in the first round. The Pelicans were second to last in the NBA last season in three-point attempts.
New Orleans will need improvement from their bench. The Pelicans outscored the Timberwolves 30-23 in bench scoring, but every Pelicans' bench player who played more than ten minutes was a negative in +/-.
Next up for New Orleans is the Golden State Warriors. They also head into the matchup losing their first game to the Los Angeles Lakers 103-96 Friday evening. The Pelicans will look for a win to improve to .500 with at least three games remaining in the tournament.
Teams with the best record after four games will qualify for the semifinals, beginning on July 16. The winners of those games advance to the Championship game. The remaining 28 teams play a fifth and final game against each other. New Orleans has never won a Summer League championship in its history.
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