New Orleans — In Friday’s win over the Kings, the Pelicans set a franchise record, scoring 149 points, following-up a 131-point night in their opener against the Rockets. Part of that can be attributed to playing at such a fast pace. But can they maintain this– or even play faster?
“Look I don’t know,” said Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday. “If you want me to be honest. I think we had a good feel from last year how we wanted to play in pace. Obviously going into the summer having that in the back of our heads and then being able to carry that over so that was definitely good for pace. But playing faster? I’m not Usain Bolt so I don’t know how much faster I’m going. We got some athletes out there though. The ball moves faster than the man does so I think we try and swing the ball.”
The other part of the high scoring wins, is that the Pelicans have been shooting lights-out. They are leading the league shooting 56% from the floor and are second in the league from deep, shooting better than 46% from beyond the arc. Nikola Mirotic has done his part to keep those numbers up– ranking second in the NBA averaging 33 points in their first two games. He’s 61 percent from the floor and nearly 65% from three.
“Man, just get him the ball,” Holiday said. “Get him the ball anywhere. Obviously every time he shoots it we feel like it’s going in. I do think it’s energy– setting screens, flare screens, back screens, cutting off of them and hitting him in transition, being able to get him easy buckets to get him started has been really good for him. Not only him but me. If I cut off of him or do something like that, probably my man is going to Niko too so I get a wide-open lay-up or something.”
“A lot of it is open shots and a lot of it has to do with Niko,” said Pelicans guard Elfrid Payton. “Niko, he can’t miss right now. A big part of that is him not missing but along with that is our spacing. Coach is confident in us taking those shots. He wants us to take those shots. I think that goes a long way. We hope to keep that up throughout the year.”
