New Orleans — The Pelicans effort and enthusiasm was undeniable Saturday night as they beat the Lakers 128-115.
Alvin Gentry, Pelicans Head Coach, “I just thought we played hard and we competed. We did a good job I thought with the pace of the game– probably the best we’ve done this year– as far as starting with good pace and keeping the pace going.”
After the game, LeBron James weighed-in on his team’s performance.
“As a whole it kind of looks that way at times that sometimes we feel like we’re afraid to be uncomfortable, kind of get out of our comfort zone,” said James, who finished with 27 points, 12 assists, 7 rebounds in the loss. “Kind of have that sense of urgency from the jump and not be afraid to actually go out and fail to succeed. We have what? 23 games left? We’ll see what happens.”
With Anthony Davis sitting out on a rest day on the second game of a back to back, that left the door open for other guys to step up. Seven players finished in double figures, including Cheick Diallo, who finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds and had a huge block on Brandon Ingram that got the whole team fired-up.
“Really I thought it was one of those total team wins,” Gentry said. “Obviously Jrue was great and Julius was really good. At the end of the day, Elfrid was a plus 20. When he was on the floor we were plus 20 so I think you can take all the guys that were involved in the game at some stage they did something that was really positive for us.”
In the win, Jrue Holiday surpassed the 10,000 career points milestone, finishing with a team-high 27 points.
