Despite being notably shorthanded, the New Orleans Pelicans won their third game of the season against the LA Clippers last game, behind a 36pt/6stl outing from Jrue Holiday and a 20/20 game from Derrick Favors. Big things, and great to see some of our major guys really showing up. Hopefully that's a sign that Favors is back fully healthy, and that Jrue has knocked the lid off this season.
Here's our Injury Report for this game:
Pelicans Injury report - 11/16 at MIA:
— Pelicans PR (@PelicansPR) November 15, 2019
PROBABLE: B. Ingram (R Knee Soreness)
QUESTIONABLE: L. Ball (R Adductor Strain), J. Okafor (L Ankle Sprain), J. Redick (L Great Toe Sprain)
OUT: J. Hart (L Knee/Ankle Sprain), D. Miller (R Achilles Surgery), Z. Williamson (R Knee Scope)
This means something pretty cool: Ingram will probably be back! Which is cool. We want him and the others (Lonzo, Hart, etc) to miss as few games as possible. Gotta get those sample sizes built up so we can evaluate them properly in as broad a context as possible. On the downside, we will miss Redick, who has been shooting lights out recently and contributing in a big way.
Luckily, for the second game in a row, we will also be facing a team that's shorthanded:
Justise Winslow, Derrick Jones Jr. and KZ Okpala are out for tonight's game vs. Pelicans.
— Anthony Chiang (@Anthony_Chiang) November 16, 2019
Jimmy Butler and Goran Dragic are questionable because they are both sick.
No Winslow (13/8/5) or Jones (7pts, 60%fg) is pretty good for us, but if they're also missing Butler and Dragic then this would be a prime opportunity for us to get another win in the record books and keep on that hill back up to .500. Butler is currently averaging 19 points, 5.5 rebounds. and 6.5 assists to go along with a league leading 2.8 steals per game, so losing him would be fairly significant, and Dragic is currently putting up 16pts/7asts with 42% from 3 point land, so losing him would be pretty impactful too. Let's hope that their tummy bugs are just a little too much for tonight, and they decide to sit this one out.
Overall the Miami Heat have the 17th ranked offense in the NBA, but the 3rd best defense. So our focus should really be on continuing our defensive improvement and trying to clamp down on that end, especially if they're missing their leading scorers in Butler and Dragic. They play with the league's 12th ranked pace, so while they aren't exactly snails, they aren't quite used to keeping up with our pace, so that should help us strain their offense even further but forcing them to push the defense.
The real point of exploitation in this game should be rebounds. Bam Adebayo is their leading rebounder, with 10.3 a game, but after him their 2nd and 3rd guys are Winslow and Butler: both of whom may be out. Even with both of those guys, Miami rank 26th in the NBA in rebounds per game: with Favors playing like he did in the Clippers game, this could easily be another big board night for him and that would help cut off the Heat's already poor offensive rebounding (25th in the NBA). They should not be getting second chance points tonight.
With all that in mind, this is a winnable game, and that would be huge for us to get up to 4-8. Every win matters at this early point in the season, and if we can take one away from a pretty good Heat team, on the road, that would be huge. Let's go out and get this win. #WBD