February 22nd - New Orleans Pelicans @ Indiana Pacers - 26-33
We are back, after a long and very dramatic all-star break filled with rumours, revelations, and ridiculous media appearances. Dell Demps has been let go, and Danny Ferry is serving as interim GM. He has spoken out saying that, to meet league expectations, AD will play but his minutes will be very much reduced, and we should also expect to see a reduction in Jrue's minutes to account for how much he's played already. Along with that, E'twaun Moore is currently expected to play only every other game, and Ferry has announced his intention to have Kenrich, Frank, and Jah play more minutes per game. This is, of course, very good!
Not as good as AD being sent home, but right now I'll take what we can get. It at least sounds like things are heading in the right direction.
Tonight we take on the 38-20 Indiana Pacers, who had won 6 of their last 7 heading into all-star break, including a 109-107 victory against us! None of their wins have been against massively impressive teams (LAL, LAC, CLE, CHO, MIA), but given that we aren't a massively impressive team right now, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. As long as AD only plays 20-25 minutes, and Jrue's minutes come down to 25-30, I wouldn't see this being a win. That's good, because we are fully engaged in the tank, and the tanking is going well: we are currently only 1.5 games behind Washington for 7th, which is a spot that comes with a 32% chance to get a top 4 pick.
There's also the chance that tonight will be kind of fun, given that AD shouldn't play too much. If the majority of the game can be Jrue leading the young guys to gritty, hustling play like we saw before AD started playing again, I'll be happy.
Let's go!
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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae
