November 26th - New Orleans Pelicans VS Boston Celtics - 10-10
Welp, back to .500. And, thankfully, back home, where our record is the pleasantly brilliant 8-1. Right now, I respond to road trips the way dogs respond to chocolate, so hopefully we can get another win at home to make up for it.
Tonight, we face the similarly 10-10 Boston Celtics. They are the complete mirror image of us: right now, we are the 5th best offense, and the 24th best defense. The Celtics are the 27th best offense, and the 3rd best defense. So, with the same record, they are just the Bizarro World Pelicans.
The Boston Celtics have lost 4 of their last 5, and of their 10 losses, 8 have been on the road. So, that's already good reason for us to be positive. Secondly, their leading scorer is a guard, which means we can stick Jrue Holiday on him. That's another good reason to be positive.
What are the Celtics good at? Well, they're 11th in turnovers and 14th in fouls, so they are fairly clean. They're ranked 10th in both rebounds and assists, so they're in the upper echelons in that regard as well. They're 11th in steals and 15th in blocks, so they got those auxiliary stats too.
What are the Celtics bad at? Well, putting the ball in the hoop. They're 28th in overall FG%, 25th in 2pt%, 19th in 3pt%, and 14th in FT%. Their leading scorer is Kyrie Irving, averaging a little under 22ppg. They rebound well as a team, but that's just rebounding by committee: their actual leading rebounder is Jayson Tatum, averaging only 6.6 per game.
How do we win? Simple: play our game, and limit turnovers. They are 10th in both rebounds and assists? We're better, at 4th and 3rd respectively. We're 6th in FG%, 9th in 2pt%, and 16th in 3pt%, so we score better, as indicated by our much superior offensive rating. All we need to do is play some defense for once, which shouldn't be too big of an ask against one of the most impotent offenses in the league.
We dothat, and we move to 11-10, over .500 again. Let's go get it, and #DoItBig
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Originally Posted by Darkhorse985
