Jrue Holiday makes season debut for Pelicans
NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Pelicans welcomed back Jrue Holiday with a victory Friday night, as one of the NBA’s worst teams tries to creep back toward respectability.
Led once again by Anthony Davis, New Orleans’ superb big man, the Pelicans led virtually from tip to buzzer and cruised to a 113-101 victory against the Portland Trail Blazers.
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Holiday had missed all of training camp and the 2016 season thus far while helping his wife recuperate from surgery last month to remove a benign brain tumor. The medical crisis came just weeks after Holiday and his wife, former U.S. soccer star Lauren Holiday, welcomed their first child, a daughter.
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Gentry said he was pleasantly surprised by Holiday’s contribution and endurance with 23 minutes playing time.
“I didn’t know what to expect, really,” the coach said afterward. “I played him as much as I could on this first game back. But he said he felt great. We needed him to win the game and he wanted to be out there. His timing is still off a little bit, but there is a confidence level we have when he is on the floor; he’s unselfish and we feed off that.”
In truth, the Pelicans win marked their third in the past five games as New Orleans (3-10), mired in the NBA Western Conference cellar tries to pull itself out. Portland (7-7), meanwhile, dropped its third consecutive game and the second straight in what is a grueling, five-game coast-to-coast road trip.
Davis continued his remarkable 2016 season in which he is averaging a shade over 30 points and 11 rebounds a game. He was an easy call as player of the game, leading it with 38 points, 36:41 minutes played and a plus-16 for his time on the court. After leading all scorers at halftime with 16, Davis opened the second by draining a three-pointer to give New Orleans a 67-51 lead. He wound up with 13 points in the third quarter as the Pelicans built what would prove an insurmountable 88-75 edge entering the fourth quarter.
In the glow of such a solid victory and performance, Holiday offered a reverse take to the Gentry’s. “I really just think it was the energy of the team. I was juiced, but I was a little bit surprised (by how much he contributed). It felt good and these guys made it easy for me. I felt like I could play forever, but we’ve got another game (tonight) against a good team.”
The teams traded the lead 12 times in the first quarter but never again after that. Portland tried to use its much smaller and presumably nimbler lineup to stretch the Pelicans defensively, and while they battled the Pelicans to nearly a draw rebounding, horrible shooting doomed Portland. The Blazers actually had a better three-point shooting percentage (38.5%) in the first half than they did on field goals (36.2%)
It got worse from there. Although three Blazers had scored in double digits by the end of the third, led by guard Damian Lillard’s 19, Portland would repeatedly clang long shots off the iron and give the Pelicans easy rebounds. Plus, Davis was simply too much for Portland to handle at both ends of the court.
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Holiday wore protective goggles for the first time Friday and said that given the Pelicans won he’ll probably wear them again.
“I think I look dorky and most of the guys on the team have told me that, too, but I don’t care as long as we win,” he said.
New Orleans also benefited enormously from an inspired return by Holiday who played a lot of minutes in his first action since the 2015-16 season. Holiday had addressed his wife’s excellent recovery thus far in a brief meeting with reporters Thursday and both he and the team had asked that the discussion be confined exclusively to hoops going forward.
Although he missed his first free throw, field goal and three-point attempt, Holiday found his groove quickly. He had 13 points, two rebounds and three assists entering the fourth period and finished with 21 points. Holiday appeared to run the court well without getting winded, despite missing so much time and conditioning, and he got a hearty ovation when he entered the game in the first period, and another when New Orleans Coach Alvin Gentry took him out with less than two minutes remaining.