Larry Nance Jr. is not surprised the New Orleans Pelicans are coming back to the Smoothie King Center sporting three more wins in the standings. In fact, the Wyoming alum expected more out of this team and he's not alone. So does head coach Willie Green but this Pelicans locker room is not getting worked up over a road trip blip against the Dallas Mavericks. No, it's just back to the practice facility to work on two areas of their game that are currently crippling what looks like a top-4 seed-caliber roster.
“I thought we had a solid road trip. We all know in that last game we left the building feeling like we could have won the game,” Green admitted at practice. “Give them credit, they made plays at the end. Made more plays than we did but we had a really solid road trip. Now it's good to be back home and we can start our homestand.”
Nance Jr. was more direct in addressing the team's expectations and goals.
“We expected to go 4-1 but the last night slipped away from us,” Nance Jr. stressed at practice. “We have no reason not to be in these games, winning these games. We're going to be competitive against anybody so the fact we went 3-2 is great. The fact that we are 7-3 in our last 10 is great. But again, we are not happy. We want 8-2. We want 9-1. We want 10-0 so we're going to keep striving for more and pushing for greatness.”
Don't expect too many big changes to the playing philosophy. Green's still working out rotational strategies and experimenting with tactics but it's the fundamentals of the game that are holding the Pelicans back. They know it too. Executing in clutch moments and calmly sinking free throws has been this team's Achilles heel all season.
“I like where we are right now. Defense and offense are trending in the right direction. We're sharing the basketball offensively. We're executing in the half-court and rebounding the ball defensively. We have a top-10 defense,” Green boasted. “I think the area of improvement for us is the last five minutes of the game, those clutch situations. We've talked about it as a team. Taking care of the basketball, making sure we get quality shots, making sure we rebound on the defensive end, that's our area of improvement.”
Pelicans hoping practice reps pay off in real games
There is no way to replicate a Game 7 season on the line clutch time and within five points or tied environment in a practice facility. The NCAA Tournament is more of a crapshoot, one-off contest. Getting to a sixth or seventh game playing the same opponents every other night is a different beast. There is no telling how a player will respond to that pressure but the Pelicans are hoping hours worth of practices reps pay off in real games. So far, they've fallen a bit short even outside of the national media spotlights.
“The more reps you get in clutch situations the better it's going to be for us,” allowed Nance Jr. “We have guys who haven't been in playoff games, haven't been in major games. So as much as you can emulate situations in practice that you're going to see in the game is key for us. Willie's done a great job of putting us in a position to practice those.”
One position anchoring down the team's potential is the free throw line. The Pelicans are dead last by a wide margin in clutch time free throw percentage. New Orleans has been in 15 ‘clutch games' per the NBA and they've only won six. Their 59.2% free-throw rate is over 40% behind the Dallas Mavericks (94.7%). Green's group is 7.5% behind the second-to-last Washington Wizards and needs to improve by approximately 20% just to rise out of the bottom 10 teams.
New Orleans is also at 23.3% on three-pointers. The late-game misfires are a concerning trend, one that's starting to act as an adhesive to a bad reputation that the Pelicans are a team not to fear.
“We've got to make our free throws. Right now sitting 22nd in the NBA in free-throw percentage and that's uncharacteristic for us,” Nance Jr. allowed. “We have guys who are really good free throw shooters that are just smoking some right now so first first things first in free throws. Second, turnovers. We've got to take care of the ball and value possessions. I think those two things are mainly it. It's more our offense than our defense in those situations. Take care of the ball, make our free throws and we'll be fine.”
If there is no way to replicate the clutch-time pressure, there's only one way to sort through the scenarios.
“We show it (in film study), we have some communication about it, then we get on the floor and work on it. Honestly, I don't know if there is any other way but to go on the floor and put four or five (minutes) up. Then put us in scenarios that we are in and we just continue to try and work on it.”
The Pelicans are leaning on character and cannot get worked up over wasted opportunities. The coaching staff is preaching a one-game, one-shot-at-a-time approach. The wins will come if they stick to their core principles. They've got another 41 games to iron out the wrinkles before the postseason begins. Green knows it and just wants to avoid a trap game before finally getting into his own bed instead of hotel hopping.
“The biggest thing is coming off of being gone 10 days and five games, that first game is normally a trap game. I told our guys that. We had a really good practice and we want carryover going into the first game. Just take it game by game. Charlotte is first. We want to focus on them, focus on what we need to do to come out as a winner.”
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