6th February - New Orleans Pelicans @ Chicago Bulls - 20-31

Zion's shot chart is one dark circle at the rim.

What’s scary is that Lonzo is still a beat and a half late on those Zion spin-lobs.

Lord help the league if they become completely synchronized

According to the box score, Zion has 5 turnovers. In reality, he has about 3 turnovers and 2 absolute muggings that the refs ignored :hihi:

I hope Gentry gives Jah some hometown playing time.

That timeout might be it for Zion. We're up 23 with 7 minutes to go; empty the bench time might be coming.

Can someone find a replay of that last Zion steal. I want to see if it looked ridiculous zoomed in with how high he jumped

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Zion's up to 21 points on 81.8% shooting tonight in 22 minutes

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He BURIES switches. You really can't switch screen and roll with Zion unless you also plan to double team the postup.

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Originally Posted by Biasvasospasm

He BURIES switches. You really can't switch screen and roll with Zion unless you also plan to double team the postup.

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Yep. And when it comes to one on one defense in the post, it's kind of impossible unless the refs allow you to get away with fouling. They did in the first half, but in the 2nd they started calling those grabs, and then it became money.

Gotta wonder why they're leaving Lonzo in here. He's the only starter who's topped 30 minutes. Zion comes the closest, and he's sat with 25. They just want him to pad his stats or something?

The fact that NAW can't even get 5 minutes in a 20+ point blowout is sad.

Ill never get tired of Jahlil post moves

We have 37 assists on 46 makes and counting………...

I honestly think Lonzo is in specifically and solely because Gentry knows we're only 3 assists away from the team record of 40 in a game. Which is super cynical lol

Getting some NAW tonight :)

WAIT WAIT, ALERT.

Lonzo has sat, NAW is on the court!

Also, that's 4 consecutive 20-point games for Zion Williamson.

According to @ESPNStatsInfo - that's the longest streak for any rookie this season. That's also tied for the most ever consecutive 20-pt games by a Pels rookie with... Darren Collison.

— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) February 7, 2020

With 15 boards in only 19 minutes of play, Favors becomes the first Pelican in history to put up at least 15 boards in under 20 minutes btw

Why is NAW so bad? What happened to him?

SMH

This second group is not good. Almost lose when leading by 20 with 4 minutes????

End of the game, we win. The score is closer than it actually should be because we had 7 minutes of garbage time :hihi:

End of Game Statlines

Ingram: 15 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals. 5/10 shooting, 2/5 from 3. 1 turnover, 2 fouls.
Lonzo: 9 points, 3 rebounds, 10 assists, 3 steals. 3/5 shooting, all from 3. 3 turnovers, 2 fouls.
Zion: 21 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 1 block. 9/11 shooting (81.8%). 5 turnovers, 0 fouls (I still think it's 3 TOs lol)
Jrue: 9 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks. 4/10 shooting (40%), 1/5 from 3. 1 turnover, 2 fouls.
Favors: 8 points, 15 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block. 4/5 shooting (80%). 1 turnover, 2 fouls.

Bench

Hart: 12 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals. Matches career high in assists. 4/7 shooting.
Melli: 10/2/3 with 2 steals.
Jax: 9/5/1/1/1. 3/4 shooting in 11 minutes.
Redick: 18 points and 5 assists on 7/14 shooting (3/8 from 3) in 22 minutes
NAW: 1 rebound, 1 assist. 4 minutes played.
Moore: 8 points in 19 minutes on 3/8 shooting.

I think NAW looks like he's totally lost confidence. He can hardly touch the ball without turning it over.

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Originally Posted by ragincaucasian

Why is NAW so bad? What happened to him?

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He's barely played, he has no rhythm, no confidence, no idea how to play with most of this lineup, almost no real experience, etc etc. He's had a rough year. Even when he has gotten chances to play he'll get put in, miss one shot, and get yanked again in 2 minutes. He's had a horrible time as a rookie.

Win is a win but that was a TERRIBLE way to finish this game. Jesus Christ what was that trash? :idoh:

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Originally Posted by ragincaucasian

Why is NAW so bad? What happened to him?

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Rookie wall. Which is odd because normally the rookie wall is because of fatigue at knowing the season in college would've been over by now.

But whatever. He'll bounce back.

I hope by the end of the season all of the players understand just throw this lob as soon as Zion turns his back to you

https://twitter.com/espn/status/1225...140424704?s=21

Lonzo is right now the best at it and even he’s still usually a beat and a half late like he was in this clip

Shot chart analysis time lol

Ingram's shot chart is really nice. All bunched around the rim and then the 3s. Good to see, and he was being fairly efficient (3/5 inside the arc) so it makes sense.

Lonzo did not take a single shot inside the arc despite playing over 32 minutes. Lonzo has taken a total of 286 3PAs so far this season, compared to only 107 shots at the rim and 205 total shots inside the arc. This is... an unusual archetype for a point guard, especially one who is not actually that fantastic of a shooter. In fact, he has now only taken 6 shots inside the arc combined over the last 4 games. This isn't what we hoped for after seeing a general increase in driving and attacking earlier in January.

Zion's relentless murder of the rim continues, with all 11 of his shot attempts coming right at the hoop. Interestingly enough, all of them from the left of the hoop as well. Kinda funny, since so many people talk about him being left dominant, that this the first game of his where his attack has actually slanted that way.

Bucks just put an 11 point win (almost identical to the amount they beat us by!) on the Sixers despite remaining ice cold all night (shot 32% from 3).

Giannis dropped 36/20/6 in 34 minutes on 52% shooting.

Embiid had 19/11 but he shot 23% (6/26), which is worse than Zion shot defended by Giannis and Lopez :hihi:

Makes our Bucks loss a little more palatable, in hindsight, no?

Oh no, we lost to the Bucks!!!

Giannis Antetokounmpo now has his 5th consecutive game with at least 30 pts, 15 reb, 5 ast — tying Wilt Chamberlain for the longest such streak in NBA history.

It's also his 11th such game this season, the rest of the NBA has combined for 10 such games.

(h/t @EliasSports) pic.twitter.com/6JBbxMlHXG

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) February 7, 2020

Gentry on the last 4.5 minutes: "If you can't do better, you won't be in the game. We're trying to build something. When you're given the opportunity, you have to take advantage of that."

— Mason Ginsberg (@MasonGinsberg) February 7, 2020

“In this league, when you get an opportunity to play, you have to take advantage of it. I didn’t see that with some of the guys that we put out there.” Alvin Gentry referred to end of the game a very teachable moment but warned, "if you can’t do better you won’t be in the game."

— Oleh Kosel (@OlehKosel) February 7, 2020

On one hand, I get what Gentry's saying. We played terribly in those closing minutes and damn near blew the game in them, just looking at the box score.

But on the other hand, is a NAW/Frank/Jah/Jax/Melli combo expected to play well together? Is NAW expected to have made progress when he's spent the entire year being pulled around? Yes that lineup sucked but what did he think was going to happen?

Also, I don't understand the implied threat of ''if you can't do better you won't be in the game''. Is he really telling NAW and Jah ''if you can't play better, I won't play you'', as if he was playing them in the first place? Come on.

From @EliasSports: Zion Williamson is shooting 57.4% this season, the best by a player through 8 career games since Hakeem Olajuwon in 1984-85 (min. 100 attempts).

It's also the 3rd-best through 8 games by any player in the shot clock era (min. 100 attempts).

— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) February 7, 2020

Edit: Just to clarify what this looks like so far from Zion

1: 22 points on 8/11 shooting (72.7%)
2: 15 points on 7/9 shooting (77.8%)
3: 21 points on 9/16 shooting (56.2%)
4: 14 points on 7/13 shooting (53.8%)
5: 24 points on 9/15 shooting (60%)
6: 21 points on 8/14 shooting (57.1%)
7: 20 points on 5/19 shooting (26.3%)
8: 21 points on 9/11 shooting (81.8%)

That's an average of 19.8 points per game on 62/108 shooting: 57.4%.

Zion would be shooting around 65 percent if it wasn’t for game 7. That’s really impressive.

Brandon Ingram was selected to play on Team Giannis against the LA-LA Boys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Woh_Y9Vm5iw

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

With 15 boards in only 19 minutes of play, Favors becomes the first Pelican in history to put up at least 15 boards in under 20 minutes btw

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That’s why he’s important to keep. He plays great defense, has high bbiq and can rebound. Plus he’s a big dude.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by SonOfNOLA

Zion would be shooting around 65 percent if it wasn’t for game 7. That’s really impressive.

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Pretty much. If you take out the Bucks game, Zion's shooting 57/83, which is 68.7%

Zion Williamson has 20+ points in 6 of his first 8 career NBA games.

The last 5 players who had 20+ points in 6 of their first 8 career NBA games

Zion Williamson
Grant Hill
Shaquille O'Neal
Ron Harper
Michael Jordan

(H/t: @ckamka)

— Bulls Talk (@NBCSBulls) February 7, 2020

Zion has got his first shout out in a rap song just 8 games in. HOF here we come!

Also, this largely went under the radar, but I think tonight might have been Zion's best defensive game as well.

He finished the night with 0 fouls. 2 steals and a block. Some very good 1v1 defense, including a brilliant bit against a driving Thad Young who was giving him push-offs and everything, but he stayed under control and didn't bite on the fake. Had some deflections and tips, boxed out well on a bunch of boards, was just overall pretty good and in control.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Lonzo did not take a single shot inside the arc despite playing over 32 minutes. Lonzo has taken a total of 286 3PAs so far this season, compared to only 107 shots at the rim and 205 total shots inside the arc. This is... an unusual archetype for a point guard, especially one who is not actually that fantastic of a shooter. In fact, he has now only taken 6 shots inside the arc combined over the last 4 games. This isn't what we hoped for after seeing a general increase in driving and attacking earlier in January.

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Over the last four games, Lonzo is shooting 46% from three. That's rounded down. And we've been talking for almost a year about how Zion needs to be surrounded by perimeter shooters. That is exactly how stats can be misused to distort a situation.

FORTY SIX PERCENT!!!

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Originally Posted by As I See It

Brandon Ingram was selected to play on Team Giannis against the LA-LA Boys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Woh_Y9Vm5iw

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Did Giannis just say " I select Kevin D.. I mean Brandon Ingram"? LOL

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Originally Posted by msusousaphone

Over the last four games, Lonzo is shooting 46% from three. That's rounded down. And we've been talking for almost a year about how Zion needs to be surrounded by perimeter shooters. That is exactly how stats can be misused to distort a situation.

FORTY SIX PERCENT!!!

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Unless you're about to tell me that you think Lonzo is going to continue shooting 46% from 3 for a sustained period of time on high volume, I don't know how you can honestly say that him taking fewer than 2 shots per game at the rim is a good thing.

I think we can all agree that it's very unlikely Lonzo will continue shooting such a higher %age for the rest of the year. By comparison, it's entirely fair to assume that he will continue avoiding shots inside of the arc and at the rim; it's fair to assume this because that's what he's done his entire career up until now. So I'm not going to ignore the problem based on the fact that he's hot right now.

Lonzo needs to get to the rim. I'm not saying that because I think Lonzo personally is great at the rim. He's not. But the fact remains that far, far more important than Lonzo's individual slash-lines is the health of the team offense overall. And the team's offense is better when Lonzo is a threat to drive. The best example of this is looking at how the Bucks (an actually good defensive team) treated him. Sagged completely off him, disregarded him on the arc. He shot 10 3s that game and the Bucks absolutely didn't care; they're willing to let Lonzo shoot himself into a stupor because he's not a threat to drive and they're more interested with plugging up the paint.

You set the 4 game parameter. Don't move the goal posts now that it was called out.

You intentionally used a 4 game spread of shot distribution to continue the Zo hate. I used the same 4 game spread to show how people can abuse stats to fit their narrative. We can change the subject to philosophical discussions of how his percentage will change over time or discuss how Lonzo slashing into a crowded paint that Zion couldn't even penetrate would somehow work when everyone knows the most impactful way to uncrowd a paint is with perimeter makes but those are all distractions from the stat crime committed on Lonzo just a few posts above.

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Originally Posted by msusousaphone

You set the 4 game parameter. Don't move the goal posts now that it was called out.

You intentionally used a 4 game spread of shot distribution to continue the Zo hate. I used the same 4 game spread to show how people can abuse stats to fit their narrative. We can change the subject to philosophical discussions of how his percentage will change over time or discuss how Lonzo slashing into a crowded paint that Zion couldn't even penetrate would somehow work when everyone knows the most impactful way to uncrowd a paint is with perimeter makes but those are all distractions from the stat crime committed on Lonzo just a few posts above.

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As I said in the post you're responding to, the reason that I used four games is just that this has been a span where it's been particularly bad, but the trend of Lonzo avoiding interior shots is career long. The same time period isn't really applicable to his shooting in the same way because rather than just being a particularly prominent highlight in a trend, it's actually an unusual outlier.

It's not Lonzo hate to point out that his refusal to drive is an issue. If you think pointing out that his reluctance to attack inside the arc is "hate", then frankly any criticism must be hate to you. That Lonzo needs to drive more and be more aggressive on the inside is literally one of the least controversial and most accepted takes about this team.

Lonzo has done an incredibly good job for such a young player changing his play midgame with what is and isn't working. In that 4 game stretch he shot 46% from 3 and in the Bucks and Rockets game he witnessed the other team crowding the paint...........why would he drive?

It's like a golfer hitting a hole in one and them someone posting stats saying they didn't putt from the green enough.

Imagine final form Zion. Holy

Zo has shot incredibly well from long range lately and of course he’ll cool down soon. If he can finish the season shooting above 36% from the arc it would be a major accomplishment and help set up his drives to the paint. As a 6’6” PG he’s got to take it to the rim more. Maybe we can find a Fred Vincent for shooting layups.

Zo’s hot shooting has helped offset Jrue’s continuing struggles from outside. Since his great game in Memphis where he returned from his elbow injury, Jrue has gone 12-45 from deep, including a brutal 4-21 in the last 4 games. He's got to step it up for us to have any shot at the post season.

Agree NAW looks lost. Why not get him some run in the G League to help his rhythm and confidence?

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Unless you're about to tell me that you think Lonzo is going to continue shooting 46% from 3 for a sustained period of time on high volume, I don't know how you can honestly say that him taking fewer than 2 shots per game at the rim is a good thing.

I think we can all agree that it's very unlikely Lonzo will continue shooting such a higher %age for the rest of the year. By comparison, it's entirely fair to assume that he will continue avoiding shots inside of the arc and at the rim; it's fair to assume this because that's what he's done his entire career up until now. So I'm not going to ignore the problem based on the fact that he's hot right now.

Lonzo needs to get to the rim. I'm not saying that because I think Lonzo personally is great at the rim. He's not. But the fact remains that far, far more important than Lonzo's individual slash-lines is the health of the team offense overall. And the team's offense is better when Lonzo is a threat to drive. The best example of this is looking at how the Bucks (an actually good defensive team) treated him. Sagged completely off him, disregarded him on the arc. He shot 10 3s that game and the Bucks absolutely didn't care; they're willing to let Lonzo shoot himself into a stupor because he's not a threat to drive and they're more interested with plugging up the paint.

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It has become like clockwork. The minute anyone praises Lonzo for any part of his game, you quickly post something to shoot it down. We all would like him to drive more and it appears to be a weakness in his game. Your bias against him so obvious that you see nothing else in his game. His chemistry with Zion is undeniable.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Shot chart analysis time lol

Lonzo did not take a single shot inside the arc despite playing over 32 minutes. Lonzo has taken a total of 286 3PAs so far this season, compared to only 107 shots at the rim and 205 total shots inside the arc. This is... an unusual archetype for a point guard, especially one who is not actually that fantastic of a shooter. In fact, he has now only taken 6 shots inside the arc combined over the last 4 games. This isn't what we hoped for after seeing a general increase in driving and attacking earlier in January.

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I've been disappointed with Lonzo's regression these last few games. It almost seems like early success at the three point line during a game reinforces some of the bad habits that we saw early in the season.

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Originally Posted by Freyfamilyreuni

I've been disappointed with Lonzo's regression these last few games. It almost seems like early success at the three point line during a game reinforces some of the bad habits that we saw early in the season.

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He's shown improvement across the board, most notably 3 point shooting. The last few games as you point out, he's 8/21 from 3, good enough for 38.1%. He hasn't taken the gigantic leap BI has, but he is making strides. Chemistry and role are still being worked out. This likely will be a somewhat different looking team by the end of the year and certainly next year, and a new coach is also a real possibility. I'm more than encouraged overall and I like the way he's trending.

I know this is obviously a huge if, but if Zion's defensive IQ ever catches up to his athleticism and motor, he's going to be just as scary on that end as he is offensively.