Pelicans bigs defense vs. Thunder (Feb. 26th, 2017)

Hello there.

Yeah so the Pelicans defense has really sucked during the 3 games Cousins has been there. This Thunder game is the 2nd game I saw from them, and in both games the big man defense stood out.

Obviously it would help if someone else besides Cousins and Davis did something on offense but that’s another story.

Here are some clips from the 1st half last night where the defense by Cousins, Motiejunas and Davis was bad.

First possession of the game. Isn’t terrible for Davis (on the scale of things) but Sabonis getting the back screen should be communicated. In the scouting report Sabonis going left should be pretty clear.

Second possession and the Thunder run the exact same play. Davis still has no idea screen is coming and Sabonis was open for the score. Doesn’t happen and Adams gets an and-one score. Post defense is going to come up again.

Most of Davis’ terrible plays were box outs. This is the 1st of many.

Davis falls for the up-and-under move by Kanter. Later Motiejunas makes the exact same mistake on the same move.

Davis couldn’t box Adams at all in this game. No early work allows Adams right under the rim. Doesn’t do anything and gets pushed under.

Defending Westbrook is tough, but Motiejunas among others couldn’t stop the pocket pass. In the NBA if you make that pass it’s game over — more to containing defense than just standing on the foul line. These plays weren’t helped by guards either.

Motiejunas fooled by Kanter.

Cousins is back in the game after 2 early fouls and first post-up where he does nothing to defend. Lucky miss.

Aptly titled video “9Ddmowtf”.

Cousins not in a stance, should be pretty straightforward that needs to just be better.

Cousins not in stance part 2. Imagine how many points Gobert would have saved on the possessions. Guard defense is non-existent too. Should be switch to roll man automatically, but big should be able to guard the attack better.

It’s not a bad defensive compilation without a Cousins transition clip is it?

Davis again boxing out Adams.

Cousins too low on the pick-and-roll. Not in a stance to defend.

By no means were the guards good, and there were some basket cuts and transition mistakes too. Big men have biggest influence on defense and this is a pretty good way to allow 112.7 points per 100 possessions regularly.

Have a nice day!