28th December - New Orleans Pelicans VS Indiana Pacers - 9-23

After a somewhat surprising but pleasant win, we now have 9 wins, which means a victory tonight would tip us into the double digits in the W column. That's kind of cool. A good win over a good opponent on Christmas Day was a nice way to celebrate, even if it did start so late that it was technically Boxing Day where I live when it started.

Statistical fact: our ORtg has remained about where it was, at 21st in the NBA, but our defense has improved from 27th to 24th, so that's progress I guess, even if some of it is just the result of luck when it comes to shots falling for the other team.

At home this time, our opponents are the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers are currently 21-11, and have won 6 of their last 8. Their 2 losses in that span came against Milwaukee and Miami, who are good teams, meanwhile they've steamrolled Charlotte, Atlanta, and Sacramento while also filing solid wins against the Lakers, Boston, and Toronto. Basically, they've looked pretty good.

The Pacers are 14th in ORtg, and 8th in Drtg, so we have a team that's fairly balanced here although clearly better on defense than offense. They're also a slower team, falling in at 24th in the league in Pace, which is something we can take advantage of: part of our success against Denver came from being faster than them. There's no need for us to go at 200 miles an hour, but if we can just push the pace a little past where Indiana is comfortable, that could help us.

Pacers are 8th in FG%, 5th in 3pt%, and 6th in FT%. They are, however, only 29th in 3pt attempts and 30th in FTAs: they much prefer attacking inside the arc, but somehow don't get fouled a lot. Kind of odd, from a purely on-paper perspective, but there we are. A part of that might come from the fact that Malcolm Brogdon is the 2nd most efficient mid-range shooter in the NBA this year, hitting around 51% of his midrangers (2nd only to 54% from D-Lo) so while yes, they're hitting from inside the arc they're still jumpers rather than crashing the rim. Speaking of Brogdon, he's listed as questionable on Basketball Reference, and he didn't play in their last game, so who knows if he'll be present tonight?

Other than Brogdon, Domantas Sabonis is awesome and we should all appreciate him being awesome.

That's about all I'm going to say tbh. Hopefully we can pick up a win tonight but the Pacers are a good enough team where that's no guarantee. It will be made easier if Brogdon is out, and of course it helps that they're on the second night of a back to back.

#WBD

Crowd might be a little thin today with a 6pm tip-off. Who knows.

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Originally Posted by WildlifeAirGrp

Crowd might be a little thin today with a 6pm tip-off. Who knows.

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And LSU plays at 3

LMAO!

#GEAUX TIGERS

#Fire Gentry

Crowd might be thin Sunday too as it is same time as Seahawks vs 49ers.

Yeah. Suck time to be playing some home games.

BUT THE STREAK GOES ON!!!!

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Originally Posted by 13 - 3

LMAO!

#GEAUX TIGERS

#Fire Gentry

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you should have started the game thread like you did last game and jinx us into a win lol and had pelicandae do the write up after ......

we still getting this win and will hold the pacers to 105....pels 111-105...book it...

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Originally Posted by msusousaphone

Yeah. Suck time to be playing some home games.

BUT THE STREAK GOES ON!!!!

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It's a great starting time for me. Game starts at midnight here in the UK, which means it'll be done by 2:30am or something like that. Way better than last game, which was a 3:30am start, for example.

It's a lovely weekend time....usually....if not for the football.

I'll be at a party so I'll watch it on a delay. Someone else takeup the mantle of "snarky optimist ".

Statement from the New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans pic.twitter.com/1WhBvJmjI5

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) December 28, 2019

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Statement from the New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans pic.twitter.com/1WhBvJmjI5

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) December 28, 2019

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Sad news.

“Wanna trade?”@Zionwilliamson blessed a fan with one of his own shoes �� pic.twitter.com/OCk6rSqU53

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) December 28, 2019

Zion looking trim in this video

Zion just threw down a windmill dunk at warmups

— Shamit Dua (@FearTheBrown) December 28, 2019

Zion on the comeback trail

Hate how much effort we put into that defensive possession just to get scored on anyway :hihi:

Jrue blocks TJ Warren and then finishes on the other end

Lonzo come on, with the travel?

Man, Sabonis is such a good passer for a big. He's no Jokic, obviously, but he is really good.

Great decision from Ingram there to pass up the 3 for the drive. Turner was on him, but there was nobody else anywhere close to the rim. It's always good to attack open space like that.

What I wanna know is what our staff has done with Ingram regarding FTs. He had never shot better than 70% in his first 3 years from the line, and all of a sudden he's an 84%+ FT shooter in New Orleans? What did they do?

Good to see Lonzo drive into the paint like that. Didn't finish, but liked the choice.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Zion just threw down a windmill dunk at warmups

— Shamit Dua (@FearTheBrown) December 28, 2019

Zion on the comeback trail

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and Pels only 5.5 back of the playoffs....Griff working his magic

Wow Redick

Lonzo does that a lot, and I hate it almost everytime.

He drives normally until he's about 6 feet away from the basket, then he jumps and turns midair to try and pass it backwards rather than try to finish it himself or kick it out to the corners more conventionally.

He does it seemingly every game, and it's so irritating.

Pacers defense looking impressive so far, and our offense doesnt' seem to be able to crack it right now. Having trouble.

Need more motion. Would love to see some more screening action to create space.

12 of their first 21 shots have been threes.

And they are losing. by double digits.

No big win or small winning streak will dissuade me from knowing there needs to be a coaching change.