October 23rd - New Orleans Pelicans vs Los Angeles Clippers - 2-0
After what felt like around 200 years and was actually barely half a week, the New Orleans Pelicans are back to play their third game of the season! This time, the LA Clippers come to Louisiana, looking to build on their narrow victory over the Rockets on Saturday. Both teams are well rested, and both teams have played pretty well so far, so it looks to be an exciting matchup.
Key factors? Bigs. It's no secret that a lot of our success has come from having a team that's led by the three headed monster of big men in Niko, AD, and Randle. So far, none of the teams we've played have had any way of matching up with that, even on paper. LAC, on the other hand, do have something. Tobias Harris is a big SF, Gortat is a big, traditional centre with a high IQ, and they have Montrezl Harrel off the bench for energy: hell, they even have Boban for his mandatory 5 minutes a game.
Tobias Harris/Marcin Gortat/Montrezl Harrel is obviously not a trio on the same level of Niko/AD/Randle, but they are solid players, and they are also big. The question is, can they keep up with the pace, and can they find defensive stability? Gortat is almost 35 years old, and can't defend well on the perimeter: and all of our bigs can shoot. So who draws the odd man out?
Defense is also a big factor: we've heard a lot of talk about Jrue encouraging active defense during the Kings game, and hoping it will be more consistent in future. Is this that future, or will we see some bleeding at times?
Super excited about this matchup, and I think it's one of those indicator games. We blow through LAC the way we did the Kings and Rockets, and I think we can get really hype for the season. A loss isn't the end of the world, but keeping up the momentum after a long rest will go a long way to proving that the Pels are in this for the long haul.
Let's go!
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Originally Posted by msusousaphone
