New Orleans — The pelican Their defense kept us going on Thursday night.
they held Portland 106 points on 43.5% shooting. Damien Lillard did not play, and Anphanie Simmons It was held at 5/18 from the field.
Most nights, Pell had enough offensive firepower to win in those situations.
However, the Blazers’ second-half offense against the 2-3 zone fell through on the night, resulting in a bitter 106-95 home defeat.
Given Lillard’s absence, it was perhaps the ugliest loss of the season for a New Orleans team struggling to find consistency.
Still, the offense blunders are probably fixable with a few tweaks here and there. I was.
Zion Williamson‘s defense is a problem.
And it’s not just because he loses position or messes up communications with certain coverage (which he also struggles with). When asked to man up and prevent dribbling intrusions, he hardly gets it far enough.
There are some small fixes New Orleans could make on both ends of the court to address the issues that resulted in the team’s underwhelming 6-6 start. It all depends on the star’s willingness to make the necessary sacrifices. On defense, no one is asked to embody that mindset more than Williamson.
In some cases, his strength and quickness have shown him to be more than capable of impacting that objective. I will continue to avoid this group.
“We have to make the decision that everyone guards regardless of who is on the floor,” Pelicans head coach Willie Green said. They got into the paint. They got to the basket. These are the things we need to do better.”
A good team finds a weak spot in the enemy’s defense and repeatedly pursues it until the opposing team adjusts. That’s what the Blazers did on Thursday night.
Every time they needed a bucket for a big moment, they ditched their offensive playbook and called Williamson over to Simmons or Jerami GrantWhen Portland replaced the Pelicans and Williamson was left on the island to guard Simmons or Grant one-on-one, the results were always bad for New Orleans.
In these matchups, Williamson was unable to use his physical abilities to his advantage and struggled to move his legs and stay in front of the ball. Every time Simmons or Grant passed Williamson on possession, Williamson’s frustration grew and the home crowd’s impatience grew.
After attempting only six shots in the game’s first three quarters, Williamson caught fire and scored 17 points in the fourth quarter to keep the Pelicans in the game. However, it didn’t matter in the end because New Orleans couldn’t string together enough stops.
Green tried to rely on a small ball lineup with Williamson on five. He hoped it would ignite his team and make Portland’s zone easier to attack. With these units, the best strategy is usually to switch everything in a pick and roll situation. However, with a huge target on Williamson’s back, it was difficult to succeed with that group on the floor.
When it became clear that Williamson was unable to hold his own in a one-on-one situation, Green switched coverage and told Williamson to blitz the ball handler with a pick-and-roll to get the ball out of his hands. This allowed Portland to swing the ball across the court and find a shot wide open.
Williamson’s half-hearted shutout didn’t help the possession either.
Williamson finished the game with 29 points, and his 4th quarter blowout was the only thing that prevented New Orleans from a full-blown collapse in the 4th quarter.But when you have to put in a lot of effort to cover his one weakness of the best offensive player, it’s hard to survive in some of these back-and-forth games when things get tight. This is why greens often Larry Nance Jr. that’s all Jonas Valanciunas 4th quarter of the season.
Williamson has previously admitted that he has work to do to reach his full potential as a defender, but on Thursday night, some of the Pelicans’ defensive plans gave him different ways to defend. In his view, the entire team needs to be on the same page to execute these schemes at a much higher level than the Portland game.
“I think when people watch on TV, they don’t know what’s really going on in the huddle,” Williamson said. Like, pushing the players in a certain way or telling them to guard in a certain way, it’s not that I’m not following them, I’m just following the game plan and they’re doing a great job of executing it. Did.”
There is some truth in his statement. But ultimately there is a certain point where everyone on the court must lock in and protect the person in front of them. If someone shows they are incompetent, they are put in the spotlight until something changes.
This is a dance that Williamson will have to deal with repeatedly for the rest of this season, and possibly for the rest of his career, until he does something.
Williamson can be a good defender. A physical trait that makes him such a burden to handle offensively can also be used to his advantage on the other side. You must commit to bringing a consistent level of mental focus and effort to make sure it feels right.
But what makes Williamson’s problems so damaging is that if one of the best players takes on defensive responsibility, it can drag down an entire team.
If Williamson’s bulldozer drives to the basket and acrobatic alley-oop slams are great ways to boost team energy, why doesn’t his defensive blunders have a similar detrimental effect on those around him?
One of the best examples of this is Luka Doncic Game 2 of last year’s Western Conference semifinals.of Phoenix Suns made a plan Going to Doncic repeatedly throughout the game to wear him down and watching Doncic being cooked over and over again undermined his team spirit.
But Doncic responded in Game 3 the way a superstar should respond. He brought the fight to Phoenix and was not shy when it challenged him.
Dallas responded to Doncic stepping up his way, winning four of the next five games to end the Suns’ season.
No one expects Williamson to look like Dennis Rodman at this point in his career, but he has to play with better energy on the defensive end. He has to show his willingness to commit to a bigger goal, as most of his teammates do every night.
This doesn’t mean his teammates aren’t to blame. They can help him out and do a better job of keeping him out of matchups that don’t work well for him. Here’s the sacrifice for players who are also looking to score 20-25 points each night.
Between Williamson and his teammates, Everyone Willingly place it nightly for defense. It looks much better than it has in the last few weeks.
“I think he did a good job of sitting down and forcing tough shots.” CJ McCallum Talked about Williamson. “It rotated well. We did some hits, we did some shows. We mixed a lot of different things. ”
These struggles are not the end of the world. It’s a growing pain that most young teams go through as they learn what it takes to win consistently.
After the end of the 2020-21 season, there are many topics Brandon Ingramwillingness to commit to the defensive end and how badly his struggles affected his teammates.
Over time, Ingram has greatly improved his efforts as a defender. He went from being considered a terrible defensive player to being an above average player in the eyes of many.
Williamson will improve over time as there is more scrutiny on this part of the game. He wants to be a good teammate and cares about winning. This encourages him to improve on these obvious weaknesses.
But how long will it take him to get there? Will he show the necessary growth in a few months? Will he come out next season? Will it take longer than that?
The answer to that question may ultimately determine how far the Pelicans can go this year. We know the wealth of offensive talent this roster boasts. But is anyone in this group willing to make sacrifices on the other side for the greater good?
That question begins with Williamson and ends with Williamson. Once he fully understands what it takes to be a big-time two-way player, it will change his career and raise the ceiling for this franchise. We need to re-evaluate how dangerous it will be in the West in general.
“This is what really builds character,” said McCallum. “Not everything should be easy. It should be hard. It should be hard. You are going to go through some trials and tribulations. It’s how you react.”
(Photo: Stephen Lew/USA Today)
