November 14th - New Orleans Pelicans vs Dallas Mavericks - 4-6

In-Season Tournament game on the new court 💀

🕖: 7:00pm
📺: Bally Sports NO
📻: @995WRNO#Pelicans | @SmoothieKing pic.twitter.com/JAWSgR3vbC

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) November 14, 2023

A rematch of a game from a few days ago where we got smoked.

Lmao. I love the write up today.

Hopefully the team shows up to this one. I'm gonna be there tonight. I really dont want to get skull drug and then have to walk back to the car in the rain.

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Originally Posted by Fedupfan

Lmao. I love the write up today.

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Not really much else to say :hihi:

Gotta say, out of all the ridiculous tournament courts, I actually like ours. Looks better in physical form than it did on the illustrations - just wish the stupid trophy wasn't there at centre court. If it was just the Skelican in the middle it would be so much cleaner.

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Originally Posted by drortego316

Hopefully the team shows up to this one. I'm gonna be there tonight. I really dont want to get skull drug and then have to walk back to the car in the rain.

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early sunday i was mad that i was going to miss that game, then as the game went on, i was at ease that i couldnt go.............tonight im going and trying to force my way out of it lol.......

since nance is out,,im going and put zeller in a couple of lineups because i think he will lead the team in assist if he is the backup to jonas..

I rewatched the last game which I rarely do these days. Most of the issues are fixable. Bad defensive rotations. Not boxing out or hustling for rebounds. Not paying attention to defenders leaking out. Butter fingers on rebounds. On that Kyrie 3 before halftime, it looked like 2 pelicans were in man and the others were in zone. Just complete discombobulation. Larry was really bad.

Offense wasn't as bad. The problems aren't from iso ball. It's careless turnovers trying to hustle up the floor too fast. Sometimes over passing. Bad ball handling and we're talking 1st or 2nd dribbles.

Then Dallas just ripped off like 6 straight 3s with a Luka 3 point play in between. Meanwhile Pelicans have an u forced turnover fest. A 9 point dallas lead ballooned to 25 real quick and it was over.

Will it get cleaned up tonight? I dont see it.

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Originally Posted by luckyman

I rewatched the last game which I rarely do these days. Most of the issues are fixable. Bad defensive rotations. Not boxing out or hustling for rebounds. Not paying attention to defenders leaking out. Butter fingers on rebounds. On that Kyrie 3 before halftime, it looked like 2 pelicans were in man and the others were in zone. Just complete discombobulation. Larry was really bad.

Offense wasn't as bad. The problems aren't from iso ball. It's careless turnovers trying to hustle up the floor too fast. Sometimes over passing. Bad ball handling and we're talking 1st or 2nd dribbles.

Then Dallas just ripped off like 6 straight 3s with a Luka 3 point play in between. Meanwhile Pelicans have an u forced turnover fest. A 9 point dallas lead ballooned to 25 real quick and it was over.

Will it get cleaned up tonight? I dont see it.

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I wish we would run more BI/Zion P&Rs. Would be difficult for defense to choose and seems to have worked pretty well in small samples.

Willie Green will not coach tonight. Non-COVID illness. Associate head coach James Borrego will take the reins.

— Christian Clark (@cclark_13) November 14, 2023

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Willie Green will not coach tonight. Non-COVID illness. Associate head coach James Borrego will take the reins.

— Christian Clark (@cclark_13) November 14, 2023

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Yet another 'no-show'.

This one might help, though.

Might win tonight.

Sources are saying Herb’s back pic.twitter.com/cf3xqXmtac

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) November 14, 2023

Herb has returned

Starters:

Dyson Daniels
Herb Jones
Brandon Ingram
Zion Williamson
Jonas Valanciunas

— Christian Clark (@cclark_13) November 15, 2023

There is not a single legitimate shooter in this lineup.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Starters:

Dyson Daniels
Herb Jones
Brandon Ingram
Zion Williamson
Jonas Valanciunas

— Christian Clark (@cclark_13) November 15, 2023

There is not a single legitimate shooter in this lineup.

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Dyson is 47% from 3 over the last six games. #shooter

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Originally Posted by donato

Dyson is 47% from 3 over the last six games. #shooter

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This is true, but only 34% on the season and other than last game (3/6, good going Dyson) the volume's been low. I don't think he has any real perimeter gravity yet.

Other than that, JV is shooting 43.5% on the entire season, but again, it's not really something defenses worry too much about. Volume's low, release is slow, doesn't really open up spacing much.

I appreciate them both for taking them and - especially in Dyson's case - showing improvement, but I'd just be way more comfortable if there was an actual shooter like Hawk in that lineup. Someone who will take a dozen of them if they can, who can shoot off movement and coming around screens, whose release is quick, and who's comfy from 5 feet behind the arc.

There's so much easy room to improve from last game. Rebounding, putting bodies on people, actually attacking Luka on defense, boxing out, effort, etc. Just run some PnR with the opponents worse defenders; how come every team in the NBA knows how to work themselves into a favourable matchup except us? No Nance minutes will be a benefit, hope he heals up soon, so maybe that will help a little?

So lots of low hanging fruit, but I just have no confidence that we'll pick any of it. I'm not gonna believe it until I see it.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

This is true, but only 34% on the season and other than last game (3/6, good going Dyson) the volume's been low. I don't think he has any real perimeter gravity yet.

Other than that, JV is shooting 43.5% on the entire season, but again, it's not really something defenses worry too much about. Volume's low, release is slow, doesn't really open up spacing much.

I appreciate them both for taking them and - especially in Dyson's case - showing improvement, but I'd just be way more comfortable if there was an actual shooter like Hawk in that lineup. Someone who will take a dozen of them if they can, who can shoot off movement and coming around screens, whose release is quick, and who's comfy from 5 feet behind the arc.

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I was joking, but like you said it is an improvement. Looks better coming out. Hopefully he can continue to improve. Dyson with a real 3 pointer would be a great thing.

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Originally Posted by donato

I was joking, but like you said it is an improvement. Looks better coming out. Hopefully he can continue to improve. Dyson with a real 3 pointer would be a great thing.

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I think he's showed real signs of improvement for sure.

It's kind of the sad story of this season so far, there are a lot of bright spots that are just being massively overshadowed by the bad parts.

Hawk has looked awesome, contributing more than just shooting, and his ability to get shots up and (importantly) hit them has translated well, and looks to be improving.
Dyson's defense has remained very good and he's looking a lot more aggressive on offense - he's improved at least a little as a 3P shooter, though time will tell if that holds up, and he's actually shooting very VERY well from floater range which is nice.

Still work to go, of course, but both of them have been really good and a ton of fun.

37 point victory tonight. Mavs are scrubs.

Love that Herb’s back but I do worry about our perimeter scoring with that lineup

Oof

Zion and JV actually approached Luka with a screen and the open 3 that came from it was a Dyson airball

:crytear:

Wtf Zion

LMFAO

Zion’s handle has been garbage

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Originally Posted by Freyfamilyreuni

Zion’s handle has been garbage

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Delete the word 'garbage' and I might agree with you.

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Originally Posted by Freyfamilyreuni

Zion’s handle has been garbage

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While I agree, I don't think that particular TO is a great example of it. He was fouled like 4 times on that possession.

Herb and Dyson’s defense may be enough to offset BI and Zion’s defense.

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Originally Posted by Freyfamilyreuni

Herb and Dyson’s defense may be enough to offset BI and Zion’s defense.

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The problem that comes with starting them both is that you're gonna have a bit more difficulty with the staggering. Wonder how Borrego's planning to do that.

Herb's looking great, man. The impact is undeniable.

Zion with the steal and reverse dunk

Great ball movement on that possession

Dyson and Herb have had Luka in hell, this is fantastic

We should keep this court imo

Where did all the Naji haters go?

As bad as the Mavs have been their 3 pt shooting is keeping them in this game.

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Originally Posted by As I See It

Delete the word 'garbage' and I might agree with you.

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So Zion’s handle has been ____?

Lol

Hawkins, man lmao

Rookie just does not care at all

I consider that a pretty successful first quarter.

Lots of stuff to build on, and the fun part is that there's still stuff we could have done better - 3pt shot making being the most obvious one, I guess.

I would like to renew my objection to the in season tournament courts

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

I consider that a pretty successful first quarter.

Lots of stuff to build on, and the fun part is that there's still stuff we could have done better - 3pt shot making being the most obvious one, I guess.

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Certainly not playing with our head up our ******, like we were last game. Still worried about the Mavs going nuts with the three again.

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Originally Posted by Freyfamilyreuni

So Zion’s handle has been ____?

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No, you missed it....

Zion _____ has been garbage.

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Originally Posted by hornetsrebirth

I would like to renew my objection to the in season tournament courts

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Ours looks cool, I don't know about in person but I have a fairly colour accurate screen and it looks great to me (other than the stupid mid-court trophy).

Then again, I am legitimately colour-blind so my perception is a little wonky.

Herb Jones lmao

He's like ''missed some games, so that's 3 games worth of defense that I gotta catch up on''

There you go a mid range shot from Zion

Zion went glass on the mid range pull up! Love to see that

Love the timeout we have to get their three point shooting under control

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Originally Posted by hornetsrebirth

Zion went glass on the mid range pull up! Love to see that

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Maybe he should go glass on his free throws, too.

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Originally Posted by Freyfamilyreuni

Love the timeout we have to get their three point shooting under control

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Literally my one real criticism so far. It's hard to stop guys hitting 3s, and they've made a few tough ones, so all we can do is keep making it tough. On the other end though, we need to start generating more for our good shooters. 2-8 will not cut it.