DeAndre Jordan had eight rebounds and six points during the first 8 minutes, helping the Clippers build an 11-point margin.
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Do you think that the New Orleans Pelicans should play it safe and give Anthony Davis as much time as he needs to recover?
Knight scored 29 points, 20 in the first quarter, and had 10 assists.
“I’ve got to defend better, I’ve got to rebound more, I’ve got to block more shots, set more picks to get guys open and finish whenever I get the ball”, he said.
Then, in the fourth, the Jazz went ahead by 21 again, and then allowed the Pellies to go on a 22-7 run.
If the Jazz go 2-2 over this next stretch, they will still be on track for a solid season, but the sooner they learn how to stop muddling through.
“I’ve got faith and confidence in my shot and my abilities”, Burks said.
“I have been in the league for a while now, so I am a lot more optimistic”, he said.
The Clippers used 15 points by Redick and 13 each from Paul and Griffin to take a 63-42 halftime lead, ending the second quarter with a 19-4 run that included eight points by Redick in a 46-second span.
The second quarter started out even uglier, with the Pelicans only scoring nine points throughout the majority of the period. Hood and Hayward led the way, but baskets from Joe Ingles and Trey Lyles was a welcomed surprise from a bench that struggles to score. The Suns guard finished with 18 points and seven assists on 5-of-16 shooting. Davis, who was whistled for a foul, immediately went to the court in front of the Pelicans’ bench as his coaches and teammates advocated on his behalf.
“We have to play together, play harder, play tougher”, Davis said. “We are just trying to find a way to win”. Evans is way ahead of schedule right now and if he were to play on Wednesday it would be a little more than a month that he missed after the surgery.
After this back to back, the Pelicans don’t play until Tuesday, when they travel back to New Orleans to face the Memphis Grizzlies. Davis didn’t seem affected by the knee contusion he sustained Friday. Davis played, 44 minutes in fact, as did Holiday, while Evans did not. “I thought our defensive energy was really good, we got out in transition and that’s something we’ve been talking about all year, which we really haven’t done”.
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Going small against teams like the Jazz with physical rim-protecting centers means you’re going to lose the rebounding battle, but going big means you’re stuck with Omer Asik who might be the worst offensive player in the entire league at center. Gentry said after the game that Davis, who is averaging 23.5 points and 10.8 rebounds a game, will be evaulated Saturday before a decision is made about his availability against Utah on Saturday night.
