NEW YORK — The New Orleans Pelicans have lost seven of their past nine games. They’re in 14th place in the Western Conference.
Superstar Anthony Davis said that all of the losing isn’t sitting well with anyone in the organization.
“We’re a better team than our record shows. Everyone is frustrated. Players, coaches, front office. We’ve just got to do better,” Davis said after the Pelicans’ 126-121 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday.
Davis had 34 points and a career-high 26 rebounds against the Nets, but it wasn’t enough to offset New Orleans’ shoddy defense. The Pelicans allowed Brooklyn to shoot 60 percent in the first half and put up 73 points — the franchise’s highest first-half total in 16 years.
“We wasn’t playing no defense,” Davis said. “The whole first half, they did whatever they wanted. They didn’t feel us on the defensive end. We wasn’t physical, wasn’t talking. They got a lot layups, a lot of open threes. They shot the ball extremely well in the first half due to our lazy defense.”
Davis added that the Pelicans are ‘one of the worst defensive teams in the league’ when they fail to communicate, rebound and help one another as they did against the Nets in the first half. Brooklyn led by as many as 24 in the half.
Davis, though, credited New Orleans for improving its defense in the second half. They held Brooklyn to 42 percent shooting after halftime.
The five-time All Star also and expressed confidence that the Pelicans have enough talent turn things around once they get healthy. Elfrid Payton recently returned to the lineup after missing nearly 30 games due to ankle and hand injuries. Nikola Mirotic has missed 10 games due to an ankle injury.
“We know what we did last year. We know how good of a team we are this year,” Davis said of the Pelicans, who upset the Portland Trailblazers in a first-round sweep in the 2018 playoffs. “We just got (Payton) back and then we have Niko out, we can’t stay healthy. We still have to go out there and prove it. We just can’t feel sorry for ourselves.”
Looming over this Pelicans’ season, of course, is Davis’ future.
The 25-year-old will be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2020 but is eligible for a special five-year, $239 million supermax extension this summer from the Pelicans, if they choose to offer it.
If Davis turns down that supermax in July, it will be a devastating blow to the Pelicans, who would have almost no choice but to open trade talks, though coach Alvin Gentry said late last month that “we’re not trading him under any circumstance.”
On Tuesday night, Davis was asked if there were a point where he would decide that he didn’t want to play for a team that is 14th in the Western Conference, the place the Pelicans currently occupy in the standings.
Davis cut off the question abruptly, saying there isn’t a point where he’d think about that.
“I don’t. Next question,” he said.