Watching from the hallway, “Happy
with it, not satisfied with it”, was overheard as the New
Orleans Pelicans marched away from the FedEx Forum with a victory
over the Memphis Grizzlies.
The divisional rivals were both missing key pieces but Zion
Williamson finished off the hosts with 12-straight points to close
out the Game 1 win. New Orleans head coach Willie Green admitted
there were some frustrating moments but “it is easier to teach off
of a win than a loss.”
The postgame locker room message ended with Coach’s understated,
“81 more to go.” Everything wasn’t going to come together all at
once for a team trying to shed unflattering narratives from the
last few seasons.
“The biggest discussion that we’ll have is it’s going to be
hard,” Green said. “We should expect that night-in and night-out.
The NBA is going to be hard, and teams aren’t going to let us just
come down and execute. We have to be the team that’s more forceful,
and we did that tonight.”
Memphis might have been missing Stephen Adams and Ja Morant, but
New Orleans has dealt with those issues for years. No one shows
mercy in the NBA and the Pelicans’ Big Three did their job. C.J.
McCollum poured in 24 points, Zion added 23, and Brandon Ingram’s
19 points made 66 points from the team’s stars. It took Williamson
a while to get going, scoring only 7 first-half points on two made
shots, but the highlight dunk at the end of the second quarter
might’ve awakened a monster season.
“It helped,” Williamson admitted, “For me, I think it’s going to
be a few games, just getting that in-game flow back. No matter how
much I train, workout, play pickup, it’s nothing like a real NBA
game. (I) give Jaren (Jackson Jr.) his respect. I think it actually
worked out for me, just playing against the Defensive Player of the
Year in the first game and just kind of feeling out how he’s going
to jump for shots, how certain teams will try to guard me. The
second half was more so just kind of feeling the game.”
Ingram needed 18 shots to notch 19 points but McCollum was
“elite,” according to Green. McCollum felt Williamson “settled in
and got more comfortable as the game went on. Kind of felt out the
defense and obviously how they were, how they were calling the
game, and you got to get more aggressive. We did a better job of
getting the ball in spots where he’d be successful, and he finished
plays and did what he does.”
“A couple of times we got ahead of ourselves to turn the ball
over and things of that nature,” added McCollum. “I just have to
make sure I keep us settled, but I can score the ball. I can get to
certain spots, and I’ll continue to develop and get better as we
play together more. I think that’ll be helpful for all of us, the
spacing, play calling, when to make the pass and when to cut. All
of those things we’ll continue to get better at, but I like the
steps that we made from Sept. 28 to now.”
There are still a lot of wrinkles to work out with this roster.
Overlooked addition turned Twitter-trending star enjoying his first
postgame podium Matt Ryan shared, “There really hasn’t been much
time to get acclimated with everybody off the court. I flew in
Monday morning to New Orleans and tonight is Wednesday, so I’ve
been with the team for… this is like the third day I’ve been with
the team. They kind of knew who I was. Everybody at this point
knows what I’m looking to do out there, and again I just got to
thank the front office and coaches for giving me this chance.”
I asked Coach Green if there was anything they could take away
from Opening Night that had long-term value. He replied, “The
biggest clarity that we have is that we want to be a mentally tough
team. We did that tonight. Coming on their floor and carving out a
win with different lineups. Throwing zones at them, switching one
through five… all the things that we’ve been working on in
practice. It was great to see us come to somebody’s home floor and
have toughness, execution and communication and to do it with
joy.”
There are always frustrations during the NBA’s first 10-game
feeling-out process. Next up is Josh Hart’s return with the New
York Knicks. A 2-0 start while showing the same resiliency would go
a long way in the effort to win back skeptical fans.
“Look at the teams that win the championship; they’re consistent
with the small things on a day-to-day basis,” Williamson said,
echoing Green. “So, if we can get to a championship level, with the
small things, I think we got a good chance.”
