Fans of the New Orleans Pelicans will have to take all of the social media clowning on the chin, especially from the ever-raucous fanbase of the Los Angeles Lakers. After beginning the season as one of the top seeds in the Western Conference, the Pelicans' season reached its premature end after they failed to overcome the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 9/10 2023 NBA Play-In Tournament matchup.
Now, after months of mocking the Lakers for potentially giving up a pick that could end up landing atop the NBA Draft, the Pelicans won't be making use of that pick swap anymore as their own pick will certainly land higher than that of the Purple and Gold's.
What makes the Pelicans' season-ending loss to the Thunder so heartbreaking was that they had a chance to avoid the 9/10 play-in matchup altogether if only they took care of business against the Minnesota Timberwolves this past Sunday. Losing against a team with literal in-fighting isn't exactly the best look, and now, the Pelicans have paid the price.
While it's certainly disingenuous to point fingers, since games are won and lost by the entire team in a team sport, some players are more responsible than others for their heartbreaking 123-118 defeat on Wednesday.
This doesn't mean that the members of the team below are worthless or deserve ridicule. Rather, they will have to take their time this offseason to re-assess what they could have done better against the Thunder and come back stronger. There's always a next season anyway.
With that said, here are the three Pelicans who deserve the most blame for their season-ending loss to the Thunder in the 2023 NBA Play-In tournament.
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CJ McCollum
Oh, boy. Where to begin.
Against the Timberwolves on Sunday, Brandon Ingram did everything he could to power the Pelicans to victory. Ingram scored 42 points on 16/28 shooting in a game where a win meant that the Pelicans would have two chances to make the playoffs instead of just one. But CJ McCollum was not up to the task at all.
McCollum had a disastrous final two minutes against the Timberwolves, missing easy shots and two crucial free throws with a chance to cut the deficit to a single-possession game. The 31-year old guard ended up shooting 9-23 from the field and a game-worst -15 in a five point loss.
However, CJ McCollum has showed up in win-or-go home games before, especially in 2019, when he put the Portland Trail Blazers on his back with a legendary Game 7 performance against the Denver Nuggets to seal a trip to the Western Conference Finals. Thus, McCollum definitely has it in him to explode for his team with their backs against the wall against the Thunder.
Alas, McCollum struggled offensively yet again, as he scored just 14 points on 5-15 shooting. He also missed a floater — a shot he has made a thousand times throughout his career — with a chance to put the Pelicans up by three.
For the highest-earning member of the team, this kind of performance is simply inexcusable in a win-or-go home game. McCollum may be dealing with a thumb injury, but that does not justify his disappointing play.
Herb Jones
Herb Jones, who doesn't average double-digits in scoring, stepped up against the Thunder, scoring 20 points and surprisingly becoming the Pelicans' third-leading scorer.
But there were a lot of missed opportunities for Jones that he will surely be ruminating over this offseason.
Herb Jones will definitely be disappointed with himself after letting Shai Gilgeous-Alexander get to his spot for what ended up being the game-winning bucket. Jones holds himself to an extremely high standard on defense, so failing to contain SGA's dribble penetration will be such a sore spot for the Pelicans wing.
And of course, Jones literally threw away the Pelicans' season when he and CJ McCollum failed to connect on the same page on a backcourt inbounds pass with a slim chance to tie the game while down three.
Is this a bit unfair to Herb Jones, someone who took on the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander matchup and came out on top for two quarters, which not a lot of players can boast of? Perhaps.
But given how thin the margins are between winning and losing, Jones takes the cake as the fall guy for the two plays that cost the Pelicans the most.
Willie Green
The rationale behind head coach Willie Green's preference to roll with his bench big men (Jaxson Hayes, Larry Nance Jr.) in crunch time over Jonas Valanciunas isn't too hard to understand. Valanciunas doesn't have the fleetest of feet when covering the perimeter, and he was exposed plenty of times while trying to blitz the pick-and-roll ballhandler.
But Valanciunas was cooking the Thunder, specifically on the offensive glass, and his lack of involvement in the Pelicans' offense during the third quarter was simply inexcusable.
This is not to say that Willie Green is a bad coach. Green is smart, and his motivation skills are top-notch. But there comes a point where, as a coach, you may just have to roll with your most talented players, which he failed to do after he benched Jonas Valanciunas in the dying embers of their loss to the Thunder.
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