It's time for the New Orleans Pelicans to find a beach to go for vacation after suffering a 97-89 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder at home on Monday. But before they make their first splash in Galveston, here are some factors that led to their downfall in the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs.
The big guns misfired
Before the Thunder series started, it was already known that the Pelicans wouldn't have the services of Zion Williamson for some time. New Orleans would have to survive the first round at least in order to get a chance of seeing Williamson return to action before the end of the season. Instead, the Pelicans managed to buy the shortest time possible for Williamson to recover, as they got shut out by Oklahoma City. It wouldn't have ended so embarrassing for the Pelicans if only their most trusted guns outside of Williamson clicked.
But through four games, the pair of Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum struggled to find consistency on offense. Ingram, who was expected to increase his usual production in the absence of Williamson, went from averaging 20.8 points per game in the regular season on 49.2 percent shooting from the field to just 14.3 points on 34.5 field goal percentage against the Thunder. He also shot just 25 percent from behind the arc.
Granted that the Thunder are one of the best defensive teams in the league and Williamson's absence took away much from the effectiveness of the Pelicans' attack, Ingram should have still provided New Orleans with better production. Ingram's playoffs experience this season was perhaps best encapsulated by his showing on the court when the Pelicans' season was on the line in Game 4. Ingram played 39 minutes in that contest and coughed up just eight points on a salty 2/10 shooting from the floor. The former Duke Blue Devils star has one more guaranteed year left on his current contract, and based on the way he performed versus the Thunder, the Pelicans may have a tough decision to make on whether to offer him an extension or not.
Also failing to step up against the Thunder in the absence of Williamson was McCollum. He led the Pelicans in scoring in the first round with an average of 17.8 points but he shot just 41.9 percent from the field and posted an atrocious 24.1 percent shooting from the 3-point area. He was not as bad as Ingram in Game 4 in which he went 9/16 from the floor for 20 points, but from Games 1 to 3, McCollum shot 37.9 percent overall and 22.7 percent from deep.
For what it is worth, McCollum was at least not in denial of his struggles in the Thunder series.
It's tough cause we had a really good season… We end up getting swept but I thought we competed… In a series like this against a team like that with Z out, I had to be great for us to win and I wasn't great. I don't think we had a chance under those circumstances,” McCollum told reporters during the postgame press conference after Game 5 (h/pelicans Film Room).
Pelicans lacked creativity on offense
To overcome the absence of Williamson against an elite opponent like Oklahoma City, it seemed paramount for the Pelicans to be better with their ball movement. But that proved to be a tough task for New Orleans. In the regular season, the Pels were 14th in the league with 26.7 assists per game. Against the Thunder, they were second last with just 19.5 dimes per contest. The tremendous gravity from opposing defenses that Williamson usually attracts when he's on the floor was not conveniently there for the Pelicans against the Thunder, leading to breakdowns on offense in the series.
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