Hello basketball fans! I'm here again to give you a short recap for our NBA preseason games for today. And I will feature the match between the New Orleans Pelicans VS the Toronto Raptors!
The Toronto Raptors defeated the New Orleans Pelicans, 134-119 on Thursday night. What a night for Toronto as they beat NOLA without playing all of their starters. Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka and Jonas Valanciunas did not play a single minute in the game while the Pelicans play with their normal rotations and give decent minutes to their superstar Anthony Davis.
Toronto's deep bench shines and beat the hell out of New Orleans. Pascal Siakam lead Toronto in scoring with his double-double of 21 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals in 27 minutes played. Malachi Richardson added 21 points of his own with 3 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal shooting 53.3 percent from the field. second year forward OG Anunoby is doing great and continues to improve as he contributed 15 points, 1 rebound and 2 assists in this game.
Meanwhile, newly signed center Greg Monroe scored only 8 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal shooting a not so efficient 44 percent from the field. Monroe has not been the dominant big man in Detroit since he left them and still find his game.
Kay Felder did great off the bench scoring 15 points with 3 rebounds, 6 assists and 1 steal while Eric Moreland also had a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds. Shooting guard CJ Miles 14 points hitting 3 of his 4 three-pointers.
For the Pelicans, their front court all had great numbers and scored in double figures. Anthony Davis was dominating in this game finishing with 36 big points, 15 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 4 blocks shooting a terrific 72.2 percent from the field including 2 three-pointers made. He's been a monster both in offense and defense. I'm not surprise with his performance. What can you expect from a top 5 player in the league.
Former All-star guard Jrue Holiday had a fine performance scoring 14 points with 6 rebounds, 8 assists, 4 steals and 1 block while stretch forward Nikola Mirotic had 15 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 block.
New players for the Pels, Julius Randle and Elfrid Payton fits in immediately as they played fine specially Randle. Randle added 20 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists while Payton had 6 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists. Randle can be a nice back up center or can be their starting 4 and Davis will move to the 5 position.
The Pelicans can play a small ball lineup with quickness, speed and athleticism when Randle and Davis starts as their front court. Randle can run the floor well and can handle the ball better than other big men in the league. We also know that Davis can also do that better than any big men. Also the Pelicans will still be a dominant rebounding team with their small ball lineup. This can be an exciting team to watch when the regular season begins so watch out for the Pelicans.
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