Pelicans start 4th quarter vs. Hawks with six men on court
By John Buhler
The New Orleans Pelicans started out the fourth quarter versus the Atlanta Hawks with six men on the court.
The defensive culture change that new head coach Alvin Gentry is bringing to the New Orleans Pelicans is not working out so well. After trailing the Atlanta Hawks by double digits for most of the night at home, the Pelicans tried to pull a fast one on the Hawks by attempting to play six men on the court defensively. Alvin Gentry ended up getting technical foul for his game mismanagement.
The #Pelicans started the 4th quarter with 6 players on the court. You can't do that. @ATLHawks pic.twitter.com/U944rqfIzA
— Dan Why-Ner IS FREE (@DanWeiner) November 7, 2015
New Orleans was a top ten offensive team last year for then head coach Monty Williams, but struggled on the defensive end. Under Gentry, the Pelicans are 25th in offensive team rating and 28th in defensive team rating entering tonight’s game with the 5-1 Atlanta Hawks. The Pelicans are a winless 0-4.
The Pelicans have gotten off to a slow start in part to key contributors like Tyreke Evans, Omer Asik, and Norris Cole missing significant time with the club. New Orleans isn’t a deep team to begin with. So to mix it up, why not ‘pull the goalie’ like in hockey and have six men on the ice?
It seemed as though the referees were honestly confused by the bold defensive strategy orchestrated by Alvin Gentry. “Did he really just try to play six players on defense in a game of basketball? Wait, you can’t do that!”
It doesn’t matter if his team allows on average 115 point per game in 2015-16, no official is going to let a coach play six players on a defensive possession. The New Orleans Pelicans allowed over 100 points to the Atlanta Hawks with over six minutes remaining in the game.