Our first preseason game wasn't televised, so I vaguely listened in on the radio broadcast while watching college football. So these thoughts aren't half-baked as much as they're quarter-fried. Wait, what?
First the boxscore, via Y! Sports:
And some bullets:
- I really, really, really hope Pops makes the final roster over J. Alexander. Pops is a competent rebounder, and as Alexander (16 min., 2 rbs, 2 pfs, literally nothing else) showed tonight, he is most certainly not. Pops' 3 offensive rebounds in 12 minutes is encouraging.
- Marcus Thornton was apparently horrible. I'm staying on the side of 73 NBA games at a 17.4 PER for now.
- Encouraging, efficient lines from Chris Paul, David West, Trevor Ariza. Not sure what's up with Okafor's limited minutes/limited line, though Aaron Gray did pick up 7 boards in just 12 minutes.
- Willie Green registered more minutes at backup point than did Shakur. I don't think Willie Green is very good at basketball, so I'm not rooting for him to win the job. But until I actually see Shakur play a pre-season game, I won't say much more.
Finally, here are some advanced stats from the game:
| Pace | Eff | eFG | FT/FG | OREB% | TOr | |
| Memphis | 92.0 | 105.4 | 45.5% | 33.3 | 39.5 | 19.6 |
| New Orleans | 97.8 | 43.3% | 23.2 | 29.2 | 18.5 |
New Orleans shot poorly, fouled a lot, didn't rebound Grizzly misses well, and didn't take particularly good care of the ball. It's too early to read much into any of those stats, though keeping an eye on team pace as the preseason unfolds is probably a good idea. New Orleans used 92 possessions tonight; last year, the team averaged 92.5 possessions per game, or 15th fastest in the NBA.