Pelicans' G Austin Rivers is 'leaving no food on the table, trying to eat it all'
The young New Orleans Pelicans are learning to grow up at a promising pace when it comes to chasing down their dream of making the playoffs this season.
In the first 3 contests this year, New Orleans suffered from a dismal performance at the free throw line and a struggle to rev its offensive attack against the grinding Grizzlies in Memphis.
Tuesday night at the end of a back-to-back, the Pelicans addressed both issues in a statement win over the visiting Charlotte Hornets. Three players recorded double-doubles, Jrue Holiday was one assist shy of being the fourth and Austin Rivers poured in 12 points, 3 assist and 5 rebounds off the bench.
"From now on I'm leaving no food on the table; I'm trying to eat everything." Rivers said. "I'm just going out there and making plays, and again our defense helped that. We got stops so we were able to have numbers. Our bigs were running and that frees up everything. AD frees up so much for us. Then we have to attack the rim, because it gets the defense to come in and then we kick out to shooters like Ryan (Anderson) and guys like that. Again, our defense led to our offense tonight."
Offense was what head coach Monty Williams addressed at the team walk-through though before the game tipped. He challenged his squad to first set better screens for each other and absorb some of the defense's physicality. That's what hampered New Orleans' offensive attack in Memphis. Secondly, Williams admonished scorers to be sneakier and more unpredictable, to mix things up when driving to the basket.
It worked: the Pelicans shot almost 47% from the field.
Rivers, whose 4th year option has not been picked up, played his best 2 games of the young season during the back-to-back.
"I think maturity," Rivers said when asked by Fox Sports about what's changed for him from last season to this season. "As the years go on, you get better, smarter. I'm 22 and at the point where I'm still going up physically and growing mentally."
The Pelicans were also perfect from the charity stripe Tuesday, logging their first 100% free throw night since March of last season.
"When we can make 19 for 19 free throws, that is big for us," head coach Monty Williams said. "It was a really good win for us. Obviously, any win is something to value, but to be able to play off a back-to-back and to win against a playoff team says a lot about our guys."
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