The Phoenix Suns took a 2-1 lead in the series with the New Orleans Pelicans even though the Pels were at home and the Suns were without Devin Booker.
Chris Paul had another monster game and Deandre Ayton destroyed the Pelicans’ bigs to offset Booker’s absence.
The Pelicans did not play well in the clutch-time and have allowed Phoenix to dictate their rotations because of NOLA’s lack of impact play from their bigs.
The Pels have been forced to go small, and it has worked at times but it backfired last night in the last five minutes, when Phoenix was forcing them into tough switches.
Here was the Pels’ clutch-time lineup last night:
- Jose Alvarado
- CJ McCollum
- Herb Jones
- Brandon Ingram
- Larry Nance Jr.
This lineup not only struggled to score, but had a hard time switching on Chris Paul, as it left a smaller defender on a forward, which burned the Pels several times.
Willie Green may have to make some adjustments to his clutch-time unit to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
The New Orleans Pelicans clutch-time lineup
The Pels struggled to score down the stretch, mostly because they didn’t have any shooting around Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum.
I love Jose Alvarado, but he doesn’t provide any space with his shooting, and when he is not on the ball, he mostly just stands in the corner. We saw this time and time again last night, as the Suns’ defenders just kept sagging off Jones and Alvarado to make things more difficult for CJ and BI.
We know Alvarado isn’t going to be handling the ball much in clutch-time, so Green should go with Trey Murphy III, who can not only provide some spacing with his shooting, but make the switches easier on the other end.
The Suns were using their bigs as screen setters in the half court for CP3, hoping to get the Pelicans to switch one of their bigs onto him and leave a guard on the forward.
I am not worried about Herb Jones, Brandon Ingram or Larry Nance Jr. trying to stop Chris Paul, as they can make it tough on him, but asking Alvarado to defend a power forward on the switch is a pretty tall task.
This happened last night and led to a late Jae Crowder three-point shot that was one of the nails in the Pelicans’ coffin.
Playing Murphy III more in the clutch will not only give the Pels another shooter but will prevent the Suns from being able to create huge mismatches in the pick and roll.
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April 23, 2022 at 11:34PM
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The Pelicans need to make this change to their clutch-time lineup - Pelican Debrief
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