Jrue Holiday returns for the first time since wife Lauren Holiday's health scare
To the rest of the NBA, Jrue Holiday’s return to game action with the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday dove in a little under the radar – in a locally-televised affair pitched against the struggling Portland Trail Blazers.
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For the Pelicans, 2-10 entering Friday night, his first contest of the season couldn’t have come at a better time.
Holiday, who was away for the team for the first three weeks of the regular season as he helped care for his ailing wife and the couple’s newborn daughter, was a needed salve for a team that put together its best win of the year by a 113-101 score.
With wife Lauren Holiday healthy after an operation to remove a benign brain tumor, Holiday was able to contribute a bench-high 21 points for the Pelicans in the win, alongside seven assists:
Lauren Holiday is a famed member of the USA Women’s National Team, and the midfielder’s husband appeared to be no worse for wear in his first game since last March. Prior to the contest, Holiday remarked upon how “blessed” he was to be part of a healthy family, upon returning to work …
… and despite some misgivings about his early play (“I was pretty anxious the first ten minutes”), Holiday copped to feeling “good, once I got in a groove” after nailing his first lefty runner. Producing numbers (Holiday contributed 16.8 points and six assists per game in 2015-16) that the Pelicans, working with the fifth-worst offense in the NBA prior to Friday night, badly need in order to make a desperate run for the playoffs.
Following the performance, Holiday credited “the energy of the team” for his success, speaking from the winner’s locker room some 21 hours before his team’s Saturday contest against Charlotte:
“I was juiced, but I was a little bit surprised (by how much he contributed). It felt good and these guys made it easy for me. I felt like I could play forever, but we’ve got another game (tonight) against a good team.”
Yes, basketball desperation can occur even in mid-November, what with the Pelicans built to make the playoffs, and Anthony Davis perhaps wasting yet another all-world season on a middling lottery team.
Davis contributed a team-high 38 points in the win over Portland, adding six assists and four blocks while raising his season average to 31.2 points per game. The number would rank as a franchise-high in a full season for the Pelicans even if you count the team’s unofficially-shared history with the Charlotte Hornets franchise.
All for a team that is trying to not only overcome Holiday’s absence, but dueling crippling knee woes from Quincy Pondexter and Tyreke Evans. Even Davis missed out on the action in the team’s last loss, to Orlando, with back and quad flareups. The team’s two top offseason additions – rookie Buddy Hield and free agent Solomon Hill – are contributing single-digit Player Efficiency Ratings marks.
The returning Jrue Holiday, an All-Star in 2013, would seem to add a little punch to the attack. Wearing protective glasses in the wake of the orbital fracture that sidelined him in 2015-16, Holiday could act in concert with Davis and minor league success story Tim Frazier to push the Pelicans back in contention, at least, for the playoff spot that has eluded them since Chris Paul’s last season in New Orleans.
Whatever the season’s outcome, we’re just warmed to hear that the Holiday family is healthy, and just as pleased to see Jrue Holiday back to working as he often does on the basketball court.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
